BOLIVAR, Mo.– Rural Missouri school districts are implementing more security measures and arming certain personnel.
Missouri law allows districts the ability to name “school protection officers”, as long as that person completes a mandatory 120 hours of training.
Many rural districts, like Skyline School District in Urbana, share a school resource officer with other school systems. Mark Beem, Superintendent at Skyline, says having some of his staff trained to handle a gun was the next best thing to a full-time officer on site.
Beem is one of 13 district leaders to go through the concealed carry training.
Most of the participating schools are in rural areas where the response time can take up to 30 minutes.
This is a developing story.