Armed Guards Assigned to Public Schools

Posted on March 21, 2018

One county has decided to take a pro-active approach to their students’ safety by employing armed security guards at every public school.

Henderson County of North Carolina is home to about 14,000 students in the school system. Officials have said the armed security will be people of military and law enforcement backgrounds, and will start protecting the students in the 2018-19 school year.

Amy Lynn Holt who is the school board chairwoman stated, “Henderson County has always been a sleepy little town. We’ve not felt like we’re threatened here. Well, we have to start acting like we’re threatened.”

Via the Daily Wire: Henderson County differs from neighboring counties which are using volunteer school resource officers; Stanly County will start using volunteer school resource officers in April at four elementary schools. As the News & Observer notes, “Johnston County is also considering the possibility of using armed volunteers, while the Rockingham County sheriff wants to use armed volunteers in his county’s schools.”

Henderson County Sheriff Charles McDonald said it would be difficult to find enough volunteers “to be able to hold the kind of standards that we want,” adding that the armed security guards won’t be sworn law enforcement officers, but still have to be vetted the way deputies are, as well as go through psychological testing.

“As the sheriff alluded to, you can’t just pick people off the street,” Henderson County Manager Steve Wyatt stated.

McDonald finished with this, “The consensus here from the Henderson County populace is that we need security people to do security. We need teachers to be able to teach.”