A public school district in rural Oklahoma has erected four signs advertising the fact that staff members can carry guns and, if necessary, legally use them.
The site of the signs is the K-12 campus of Okay Public Schools in Okay, Okla. (pop.: 620), reports the Tulsa World.
School district officials proudly debuted the signs last week.
“Having a sign in your front yard saying ‘this is a gun-free zone’ just tells the idiots, ‘Come on in,’ because we can’t defend ourselves,” district superintendent Charles McMahan told the World. (RELATED: Campus’s No-Guns Policy Fails To Deter Dangerous Gunman, Somehow)
McMahan said he hopes the sign “might be enough to send somebody down the road looking for some other soft target.”
“Being a small, rural school, we’ve always been trying to figure out what’s best for our kids security-wise,” the superintendent added.
The full text of the four red and black signs reads: “Please be aware that certain staff members at Okay Public Schools can be legally armed and may use whatever force is necessary to protect our students.”
Officials with the Okay school district established the policy allowing certain employees to carry handguns on school property after a law allowing the practice, commonly called Oklahoma House Bill 2014, was enacted in May.
McMahan estimated that about 1 in 20 employees on the Okay campus could be armed.
Employees who do bring guns to campus must have received special gun-related certification. They must also have concealed-carry licenses.
Okay, Okla. is home to about 420 students from kindergarten through 12th grade. The tiny town is approximately 50 miles from Tulsa.
Back in fall 2014, the same area of Oklahoma made national education news when, police said, a high school teacher in nearby Wagoner showed up on her first day of work drunk and wearing no pants. (RELATED: Back To School: High School Teacher Shows Up On First Day Drunk, WITHOUT PANTS)
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