One Republican governor's response to escalating gun violence in schools was to sign a controversial bill into law that authorizes principals, teachers and other school staff to carry firearms in a school safety zone after only 24-hours of gun training.
On Monday, Ohio GOP Governor Michael DeWine signed into law House Bill 99 which would dramatically lower the required training hours for armed school personnel from 700 hours and "shall not exceed" 24 hours.
The Statehouse News Bureau said:
"DeWine, who had campaigned for gun restrictions after the mass shooting in Dayton in 2019, said signing this bill is part of an overall plan to harden school security."
However, a teacher strongly objected to the GOP-backed legislation in a powerful social media rant and slammed DeWine for signing the bill.
On the Meidas Touch YouTube Channel–which features "the Most Watched and Influential Pro-Democracy Content in the World"–a teacher known as Coach D shared his frustrations and shared his take on what Governors should authorize instead of arming teachers.
"It took me twelve years of grad school, four years of undergrad, and two years of graduate school–not to mention, continued education and professional development–for years to be able to teach in my classroom," he said.
"I've now been doing that for over 20 years. But now, with over 24 hours of training in Ohio, I could be authorized to bring a lethal weapon into the classroom and expected to take on an active shooter, and then what? Go back to teaching word problems?"
"This has disaster written all over it," he said.
Twitter offered scenarios supporting this.
He then addressed the "bunch of fake G.I. Joes who make up these Bruce Willis Die Hard scenarios" and made it clear to Governors what teachers really hope to have authorized.
"We would love for them to authorize class size reduction. For years, teachers have been sitting in one-thousand square foot classes and expected to keep 30 to 35 students engaged."
"The classes get hot and stuffy, and it takes getting one student off task to ruin an entire lesson."
He suggested that in a classroom with a capacity maximum of up to 20 kids, educators would be able to keep them engaged and "connected to the school."
"This would help lead to brighter students who would enjoy their classmates and their teachers."
"But we're getting guns."
"Teachers would also love for Governors to authorize classroom aids. Students need one-on-one attention. They need more tutoring and some of them need someone to ease their test anxiety."
Coach D continued suggesting teachers need the presence of another authorized adult to help with grading, and organizing lessons, so they can have bathroom breaks.
Touching on the reality of U.S. teachers resorting to spending their own money to provide sorely lacking school supplies, Coach D added that teachers would love Governors "to authorize an adequate amount of printer ink, pencils, erasers, crayons, tissues, and other materials to get through an entire school year."
He also said teachers would love to have "more counselors, behavioral therapists, and support staff that help and identify kids with mental health issues, treat them, monitor them and help them mainstream back into society a better and more productive person."
"But instead, we're getting freaking guns."
He added that all the viable solutions that would lead to students valuing their education and teachers are all being ignored.
But instead of creating a space where students would feel safer in society, "we're going to dump guns in schools and go back to ignoring all of the improvements and resources that teachers have been begging for for years."
"I swear, this society is regressing," he said, defeatedly at the end of the clip.
The bill has sparked opposition from Democrats, gun control advocates, and teachers who cited experts' analysis stating the bill would neither make schools safer nor be effective in preventing gun violence and mass shootings.
