CINCINNATI — Hours after Governor Mike DeWine signed House Bill 99 into law, Cincinnati Public Schools' board passed a resolution stating they will not allow teachers within the district to carry firearms.
HB 99, which passed in the state senate last week, changes the requirements to be armed on school grounds from 700 hours to 24 hours. The bill provides allowances for school boards and school leaders to choose whether to arm specific staff members.
It allocates around $6 million in funding to create a safety and crisis division within the Ohio School Safety Center.
In addition, it calls for a plan to deploy more than a dozen licensed officers to oversee emergency management training across 16 regions in the state.
HB 99 will reverse the results of an Ohio Supreme Court ruling from 2021, after parents sued Madison City Schools in Middletown when the district sought to arm teachers and required them to obtain just 27 hours of training. The Ohio Supreme Court ruled staffers in the district were required to follow Ohio state law and complete the advanced peace officer training, or have been a peace officer themselves for at least 20 years.
The ruling meant schools throughout Ohio that already implemented allowances for teachers and staff to carry guns had to force staffers to holster their weapons until they'd completed the state-approved training.
Now, HB 99 changes that, lowering the training armed staff members need to 24 hours total.
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