Hamilton County’s sheriff and school superintendent have discussed the possibility of arming teachers in county schools.
“We’re all looking for resources and ideas for the best way to protect Hamilton County,” Sheriff Jim Hammond said. The “least expensive of all the choices,” Hammond said, would be to ask faculty members who are familiar with guns to carry on campuses.
These teachers would serve “only as a stopgap measure to keep the shooter at bay until the police arrive,” he said.
The local conversation about how to ensure schools are safe and whether teachers should be armed has taken off in light of the shooting at a Florida high school earlier this month and a situation in which a teacher barricaded himself inside a classroom with a gun in Dalton, Ga., on Wednesday.
Hamilton County Sheriff Jim Hammond speaks during a legislative breakfast Thursday, Jan. 4, 2018 at the Doubletree Hotel in Chattanooga, Tenn. Hammond addressed several issues including impact fees, felony charges, criminal summons law and more.In addition to meeting with Superintendent Bryan Johnson, Hammond has met with Hamilton County Mayor Jim Coppinger, county commissioners and Chattanooga City Council members in recent weeks about school safety. County school board Chairman Steve Highlander confirmed the school district is considering allowing some teachers to carry weapons to school, in addition to other increased security measures such as facilities improvements and a new visitor identification check-in system launching March 5 at all Hamilton County public schools.