Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones calls on people to demand armed presence in schools

Less than 24 hours after shots rang out in the cafeteria of Madison Jr./Sr. High School, Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones took to the airwaves to discuss the events that transpired, and called upon parents and teachers to demand armed school resource officers or teachers.

During the interview, Jones said he that the school employs one uniformed school resource officer (SRO), and that the SRO had left the cafeteria minutes before this took place, and had left to go to the principle's office when the shooting began. Fighting the rush of fleeing students, he pushed his way back to the cafeteria. When he got there, the attacker fled. Sheriff Jones thinks he ran because he know the SRO arrived.

"You'd better have a school resource officer in your schools. If you don't...parents, you should demand it. Teachers, you should demand it. ...You'd better have security in the schools."

The sheriff continued, "My school resource officer was there and prevented this from being worse, since the kid ran out the door [when the SRO arrived]. He didn't stay in and keep shooting. They were afraid of the police.

"We always think that the odds are so great that it won't happen to you, in your school. It always happens somewhere else. Believe me....you need to have a school resource officer or a teacher or someone trained with a gun.

"The simplest thing is to have a police officer in the school. The next best thing is to have a school teacher or a school administrator trained with a firearm."

After discussing other facts about the case, Jones looped back again to the subject of having an armed presence in schools.

"I'm telling you, school administrators and these parents, you've got to have an officer in your schools. And if your administration or your Board of Education says they don't need it, they got everything under control, they're not telling you the truth. That's not true. ...They have to address this and I am not getting off this."

Click here to listen to the 18 minute interview.

Click here to visit the website of Buckeye Firearms Foundation's FASTER Saves Lives program - the groundbreaking, nonprofit program that gives educators practical violence response training. Classes are provided at NO COST to your school district.

Chad D. Baus is the Buckeye Firearms Association Secretary, BFA PAC Vice Chairman, and an NRA-certified firearms instructor. He is the editor of BuckeyeFirearms.org, which received the Outdoor Writers of Ohio 2013 Supporting Member Award for Best Website.

Additional Information:

WCPO (ABC Cincinnati) - Madison school shooting re-ignites debate on armed teachers, resource officers

"Without the officer being there within nine seconds, we feel the shooter would have stayed and took his time. There would be more people shot,” Jones said.

...

"I’m telling school boards, ‘Shame on you for not addressing this issue. When you can have all the training in the world, this is an instance where you need to have law enforcement in your schools or somebody with a gun."