{"id":5759,"date":"2024-01-18T10:24:15","date_gmt":"2024-01-18T10:24:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/2024\/01\/18\/christian-school-to-arm-train-staffers-after-deadly-iowa-school\/"},"modified":"2024-01-18T10:24:15","modified_gmt":"2024-01-18T10:24:15","slug":"christian-school-to-arm-train-staffers-after-deadly-iowa-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/2024\/01\/18\/christian-school-to-arm-train-staffers-after-deadly-iowa-school\/","title":{"rendered":"Christian school to arm, train staffers after deadly Iowa school"},"content":{"rendered":"


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‘With God\u2019s help this layer of protection will never need to be deployed,’ superintendent says<\/h2>\n
By Ian M. Giatti<\/a>, Christian Post Reporter
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A Christian school in Iowa will arm and train its staff following a deadly shooting at a high school in the Hawkeye State.<\/p>\n

Starting this month, Siouxland Christian School (SCS) in Sioux City, near the state\u2019s western border with Nebraska, will arm selected staff members to be prepared in the event of an active shooter on campus, according to an official memo sent out to families.<\/p>\n

In her Jan. 5 letter<\/a>, SCS Superintendent Lindsay Laurich cited the \u201cunfortunate reality\u201d of school shootings like the one at Perry High School in central Iowa, which left the school\u2019s principal, Dan Marburger, dead after he heroically intervened<\/a> during the shooting.<\/p>\n

In addition to Marburger, an 11-year-old student at Perry High also died.<\/p>\n

While plans to possibly arm staffers had been considered at SCS long before the shooting at Perry High, Laurich told parents after the shooting, school officials \u201cdetermined that it is essential that we take further steps to secure our building and to ensure that your child(ren) are protected at school.\u201d<\/p>\n

Calling the decision the result of a year-long \u201cserious and diligent process\u201d involving feedback from law enforcement groups, legal advisors, and insurance and industry experts, Laurich said the armed SCS staff are trained to \u201cgo directly to the threat\u201d and respond in a manner that will \u201callow teachers and students to get to safe positions and will provide an active response until law enforcement is able to arrive.\u201d<\/p>\n

All staffers selected to be armed will remain anonymous, she said, explaining that the decision was a difficult but necessary one for the safety of students and staff at SCS, a fully accredited private school with students from preschool through grade 12.<\/p>\n

\u201cSchool buildings should be safe. Teachers and children should not be afraid to come to school,\u201d Laurich wrote. \u201cWe must employ all of the tools and resources at our disposal in order to be prepared for worst case scenarios.<\/p>\n

\u201c… With God\u2019s help this layer of protection will never need to be deployed,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Whether in a Christian or secular setting, when it comes to arming school staffers, the key to limiting legal liability is \u201ctraining and acting reasonably,\u201d according to Theresa Sidebotham of Telios Law, a Colorado law firm that works with Christian ministries, churches, and other religious organizations.<\/p>\n

\u201cChurches, schools, and other ministries are frequent targets for mass shooters. While it may be counterintuitive for some, being armed, trained, and prepared can end attacks quickly or help deter them to begin with,\u201d Sidebotham said in a statement shared with CP. \u201cIn some cases, having armed protection prevented a bloodbath.\u201d<\/p>\n

While churches and ministries might understandably be concerned about potential legal exposure for arming their staff, Sidebotham said as long as certain key measures are in place \u2014 including proper training and screening of identified personnel and a \u201ccarefully crafted\u201d security policy \u2014 churches and other ministries can take the same steps as private individuals to defend their people and their property.<\/p>\n

\u201cLegal standards don\u2019t require ministries to be sitting ducks,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Additional security measures can also be taken, including the installation of surveillance cameras and implementing restricted building access.<\/p>\n

A June 2023 survey<\/a> by Lifeway Research found an overwhelming majority (81%) of Protestant pastors in the U.S. say their church has some form of security in place, whether it\u2019s armed church members, uniformed police officers, or armed private security on site.<\/p>\n

Some security measures listed by researchers include an “intentional plan for an active shooter situation,” which more than half (57%) of churches surveyed said they have in place. A similar number (54%) said armed church members are part of their security measures, a nearly 10% increase from 2019.<\/p>\n

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Ian M. Giatti is a reporter for The Christian Post and the author of\u00a0BACKWARDS DAD: a children’s book for grownups<\/a><\/em>. He can be reached at:\u00a0ian.giatti@christianpost.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Free<\/span> Religious Freedom Updates<\/h2>\n

Join thousands of others to get the FREEDOM POST<\/strong> newsletter for free, sent twice a week from The Christian Post.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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‘With God\u2019s help this layer of protection will never need to be deployed,’ superintendent says By Ian M. Giatti, Christian Post Reporter Wednesday, January 17, 2024 Getty Images A Christian school in Iowa will arm and train its staff following a deadly shooting at a high school in the Hawkeye State. Starting this month, Siouxland […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5760,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[]},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5759"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5759"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5759\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}