Georgia’s second-largest school district has voted to approve a policy that will allow certain staff to carry guns on campus.
The Cobb County school board approved the measure with a vote of 4-2 on Thursday.
The policy will allow personnel — other than teachers — to receive the same training as certified school resource officers. Those with law enforcement or military training can have the training waived.
“It was not clear whether the suburban Atlanta district intended to hire new security personnel who were not police officers, or if it would use existing employees for the role,” Reuters reports.
“During the meeting, opponents of the policy booed and shouted, ‘Delay the vote,’ demanding a more detailed discussion take place at an Aug. 18 meeting before the board made a final decision,” the report added.
Superintendent Chris Ragland told Reuters that decisions about personnel will ultimately fall on the school board’s police chief Ron Storey. He also said that they would not be revealing which staff members are armed so that they could better prevent potential shooters.
Ragland pointed out that under a 2014 state law, school districts are allowed to arm teachers and other school employees.
The superintendent also explained that there are not enough trained resource officers to cover the 114 schools in the district.
“If the board gave me a blank check and said go hire a school resource officer for every school in Cobb County, I could not do that,” Ragland said.
