Former Montgomery County, Md., school superintendent Joshua Starr said Friday that most parents don’t want to see armed teachers as a means of combating school shootings.
“Parents are not supportive of that,” Starr, the CEO of PDK International, told Hill.TV’s Krystal Ball and guest host Lawrence Jones on “Rising.”
“Now, there are some parents, particularly more conservative parents, that are supportive, folks are more supportive if there at least 80 hours of training, but overall parents are not supportive of that,” Starr continued.
“They want to see mental health services, they want to see metal detectors and armed guards, but they do not want to, for the most part, they do not want teachers to be armed,” he said.
A recent PDK International poll found that 80 percent of polled parents support having armed police in schools, while 76 percent said they supported mental health screening for all students.
Seventy-four percent said they supported placing metal detectors at school entrances.
Only 37 percent of parents polled said they supported arming teachers and school personnel. That number increased to 49 percent, however, when asked about armed teachers if training and screening programs were put in place.
President Trump was met with opposition earlier this year after he floated the idea of arming teachers as a way of combating the recent rise in school shootings.
— Julia Manchester
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