Midlands school district may allow some staff to carry guns amid SRO shortage
Lexington-Richland 5 is moving to bolster security at its schools in the face of a shortage of school resource officers.
The Lexington-Richland 5 school board this week voted to allow three members of the school district’s security team — district employees responsible for overseeing security measures in Irmo-Chapin area schools — to carry weapons on campus.
The motion will require a second reading before the board before going into effect.
The move comes as the district is struggling to provide law enforcement officers at all of its schools. Because of a shortage of Lexington County sheriff’s deputies, five elementary schools in the district did not have an officer available at the beginning of the school year.
The district contracted with a private security firm, Security Solutions of America, to provide armed guards at Chapin Elementary School, Leaphart Elementary School, Nursery Road Elementary School, Piney Woods Elementary School and Seven Oaks Elementary School. But the school district ended up calling in sheriff’s deputies from Richland County when the security firm wasn’t ready on the first day of school last week.
Attorney Kathryn Mahoney told the board that state law allows permitted school district employees to carry firearms on campus as long as they are current or former certified Class 1 law enforcement officers, and they hold a South Carolina concealed weapons permit or similar permit from another state.
An armed school employee won’t have the full power of a school resource officer, such as the power to make an arrest. Instead, if something happens at a Lexington-Richland 5 school, “They will address the situation until such time as law enforcement, whether Lexington or Richland county, arrives on scene,” said Michael Harris, the district’s student services and planning chief.
Superintendent Akil Ross said he had discussed the proposal with Mark Keel, chief of the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division. Keel recommended the three eligible security officers be qualified marksmen, and the district will make that requirement part of its qualification, Ross said.
“We just feel that in today’s society, with what we’re dealing with now with safety, those three will be first to any potential issue,” Ross said. “We want to make sure they are in a position not only to protect themselves but to protect others.”
This story was originally published August 25, 2022 at 11:29 AM.
CORRECTION: This story has been updated to reflect that a second reading by the Lexington-Richland 5 school board is required before the new policy goes into effect.
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