TOLEDO, Ohio —
Gov. Mike DeWine has officially made it legal for Ohio teachers to have guns in the classroom.
Proponents said it's a necessary step to keep kids safe from mass shootings.
However, the law has proven to be incredibly divisive, and some school boards--such as Toledo Public Schools--said it won't happen in their classrooms.
"Thinking about our teachers, they already do enough and having that responsibility with limited training is not the way to produce a welcoming environment for anyone," said Sheena Barnes, the Vice President of TPS' Board of Education.
Barnes said the board reached this conclusion after talking to the Toledo community, members of TPD and especially their own teachers and students. Instead, Barnes wants teachers armed with more resources, not guns.
"Our teachers love our students as their own, and to put them in that position for any reason is unfair to them and DeWine should actually listen to teachers," Barnes said.
However, not everyone in the local community shared the school board's conclusions on the matter.
"I think it's an amazing idea," Peter Petrick said.
Petrick and his son Dylan live in Sylvania. Peter wants nothing more than to keep Dylan safe when he goes to school, and says arming teachers would stop the problem at the source.
"You have these people that aren't scared to go up into a school to go shoot it up, but there might be a second guess when it's like, 'well how many teachers in there are armed? What am I going to have to go up against when I go into a school?'" Petrick said.
Petrick also said he's surprised school boards like TPS have already decided to not allow teachers to carry, given the recent passage of another Ohio bill.
"Ohio is about to be really open with open carry, (but) they're not going to allow a teacher in a school to carry a gun with proper training? Wow, that's crazy."
Barnes said TPS' school board is currently working with their legal team to draft a resolution officially announcing the decision and says to expect to see the official announcement soon.