Arizona education chief looks to add more armed officers in schools
The move comes as threats surge in wake of mass shooting at high school in Georgia
PHOENIX (AZFamily) — More armed officers could be coming to schools across Arizona after the state’s education head says he’s identified additional funds through the department’s School Safety Program.
Tom Horne, Arizona’s education superintendent, said $15 million in carryover dollars can be used to pay for additional officers in schools. Funds not used to pay for officers can be used for additional school counselors and social workers.
The additional safety measures come as schools in Arizona and across the country struggle with a surging number of threats. In the last three weeks, investigations have led to at least nine arrests around the Valley. Another nine threats are under investigation, and 38 have been closed and deemed non-credible.
In Arizona’s most populated county, Maricopa County, prosecutors charged a teenager with making a terroristic threat after reportedly making a threat to an elementary school in Goodyear while the teen was online and sending text messages to other kids.
“There’s much more to it than just ‘kids being kids.’ Lives are disrupted even if a shot is never fired,” said Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell. “At a minimum, school days are interrupted because kids are sent home, or parents keep them home for a day or more. At worst, an active threat can cause trauma that takes a long time to overcome. This is also a drain on law enforcement resources.”
An analysis by the New York Times found that Arizona schools received 156% more threats in one week in September than in the same week in 2023.
“One of my biggest fears is that an armed maniac gets on a school campus and causes a devastating tragedy to happen,” Horne said. “There has been a notable increase in threats to campuses in Arizona and nationwide, and that makes it more important than ever to do all we can to provide armed officers at schools.”
The Arizona Department of Education asked state administrators to waive a portion of state law requiring at least six weeks of public notice for grant application requests.
Schools would apply for officers beginning in late October for awards to be granted in December. The additional officers would then start working on campuses by January.
From Sept. 4 to Sept. 24, the Arizona Counter Terrorism Information Center reported receiving over 130 school threats.
Of those reports, 88 were shooting threats or weapons in school, eight were bomb threats, and eight were classified as general threats. The remaining threats were identified as duplicates or generic threats unrelated to a specific school.
“These numbers are distressing and show that we absolutely must do everything possible to protect students, educators and staff on school campuses,” Horne said. “This added funding is vital to accomplishing that goal.”
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