A high school in western Colorado may soon have an armed principal and district superintendent after a unanimous vote by the school board last week.
The Cortez Journal reports that the Dolores County school board voted to have the Dove Creek High School principal and district superintendent double as security officers with a pay raise of $1 apiece.
"What we're trying to do is driven by budget. We don't have the funds to hire a (school resource officer)," Hankins told The Cortez Journal.
Superintendent Bruce Hankins and Principal Ty Gray would have to first complete a concealed carry weapons course and receive a permit from the county sheriff's office.
According to the Associated Press, Hankins said school security talks had begun even before the Sandy Hook shooting in December.
The first gun legislation considered in the state legislature this year would have allowed local school boards to vote whether employees ought to be able to carry concealed weapons on campus, but it was defeated on a party-line vote by democrats last month. However, Colorado law says that permit holders may carry concealed weapons at school so long as they're under contract as a security officer.
"There are many ways to skin this cat," Weld County District Attorney Ken Buck was quoted as saying to a Rocky Mountain Gun Owners class last month.
The Dolores County School Board says that the $1 raise is meant to act as the monetary contract securing Hankins and Gray as security officers.
The county only has about 260 students, but 9News reports that the principal and superintendent could be armed in as little as a few weeks.
"As a district we feel this is the best way to protect our kids in case something were to ever happen," Gray said.