By Victor Skinner
EAGnews.org

NASHVILLE – Last month’s tragic school massacre in Newtown, Connecticut continues to reverberate across the country, sparking conversations among legislators, school board members, parents and law enforcement officials about the best way to prevent a similar scenario.

In many areas, students are reporting to class this week for the first time since the Newtown shooting, and school officials are taking special precautions.

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In Williamson County, Tennessee, just south of Nashville, school and sheriff’s officials moved quickly after the tragic events in Connecticut to pull $2.5 million from the county reserve fund to put police officers in every school building. Previously, officers only roamed the halls of the district’s middle and high schools, the Daily Journal reports.

“I don’t want to alarm anybody, but we’re not isolated either,” Sheriff Jeff Long told the news site, pointing out that the district has a record of students bringing guns to school.

On the state level, Tennessee lawmakers are considering several legislative options for addressing the school safety issue. There’s been legislation introduced to “encourage” district officials to put at least one armed officer in every school, and to allow teachers with special training to carry their handguns to school, the Daily Journal reports.

“A senator from Knoxville has promised to introduce a bill that could ask some principals and teachers to carry a weapon,” according to the newspaper.

School officials in Florida are discussing a similar proposal.

Lake County school board member Bill Mathias wants to arm teachers and principals with district-purchased guns. Mathias’ plan would allow teachers and principals to volunteer to submit to a psychological test, and those who pass would be trained by the Lake County Sheriff’s Office at district expense to become deputized and carry a weapon to school, according to the Orlando Sentinel.

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“For some, it just becomes part of their getting dressed in the morning,” Mathias told the Sentinel.

The Lake County school board is expected to consider Mathias’ proposal next week. The district currently has armed officers in most high schools and middle schools, but added officers to elementary schools through the spring, at an expense of about $400,000, the Sentinel reports.

“In unincorporated parts of (nearby) Orange County, sheriff’s deputies worked overtime Monday in about 60 elementary schools. Taxpayers will be on the hook for about $3 million to pay for their presence until the end of the current school year,” according to the Sentinel.

National School Safety and Security Services President Kenneth S. Trump thinks arming  teachers is a bad idea. He told the Sentinel most school boards and administrators can’t properly manage such a situation.