MARSHALL, N.C. –

When faculties in a single North Carolina county reopen later this month, new safety measures will embrace stocking AR-15 rifles for college useful resource officers to make use of within the occasion of an energetic shooter.

Spurred by the elementary college capturing in Uvalde, Texas, that left 19 youngsters and two academics lifeless in Might, college officers and Madison County Sheriff Buddy Harwood have positioned one of many semiautomatic rifles in every of the county’s six faculties. Every of the weapons shall be locked inside a protected, Harwood mentioned.

The North Carolina college district and sheriff’s workplace are collaborating to reinforce safety after the Uvalde capturing revealed systemic failures and “egregiously poor decision-making,” leading to greater than an hour of chaos earlier than the gunman was lastly confronted and killed by regulation enforcement, in response to a report written by an investigative committee from the Texas Home of Representatives.

“These officers had been in that constructing for thus lengthy, and that suspect was in a position to infiltrate that constructing and injure and kill so many youngsters,” Harwood instructed the Asheville Citizen Instances. “I simply need to ensure my deputies are ready within the occasion that occurs.”

The thought of getting AR-15s in faculties doesn’t sit properly with Dorothy Espelage, a UNC Chapel Hill professor within the College of Schooling who has performed a long time of examine and analysis on college security and scholar well-being.

“What’s going to occur is we’re going to have accidents with these weapons,” Espelage instructed WLOS-TV. Simply the presence of an SRO will increase violence within the faculties. There’s extra arrests of youngsters. Why is it that they should have these AR-15s? It doesn’t make any sense.”

Madison County Faculties Superintendent Will Hoffman mentioned college directors have been assembly recurrently with native regulation enforcement officers, together with Harwood, to debate the up to date security measures.

Harwood mentioned the county’s college useful resource officers have been coaching with instructors from Asheville-Buncombe Technical Group Faculty.

Harwood mentioned the safes the place the AR-15s shall be saved may even maintain ammunition and breaching instruments for barricaded doorways.

“We’ll have these instruments to have the ability to breach that door if wanted. I don’t need to should run again out to the automotive to seize an AR, as a result of that’s time misplaced. Hopefully we’ll by no means want it, however I would like my guys to be as ready as ready might be,” he mentioned.

Faculties are scheduled to reopen Aug. 22, in response to the Madison County Faculties web site.

Whereas the optics of faculty useful resource officers doubtlessly dealing with AR-15s in faculties could also be discomforting to some, Harwood mentioned he believes it’s a mandatory response.

“I hate that we’ve come to a spot in our nation the place I’ve received to place a protected in our faculties, and lock that protected up for my deputies to have the ability to purchase an AR-15. However, we will shut it off and say it gained’t occur in Madison County, however we by no means know,” Harwood mentioned.