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Veterans volunteer to boost security at Frederick schools

The Winchester Star - 3/20/2018

The Winchester Star

WINCHESTER — In the wake of the Feb. 14 massacre that killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., a small group of veterans is volunteering to provide armed or unarmed security at Frederick County Public Schools.

“Don’t sell our kids short,” the Rev. Steve Wymer, organizer of Veterans for School Security and pastor of the New Covenant Christian Church, told about 35 people at the church, during the group’s inaugural meeting Monday. “It’s not going to have such a tremendous psychological effect on them as you think.”

Wymer, a 66-year-old Vietnam War combat veteran who served in the Army, said after the meeting that the massacre moved him to form the group. He said he’s talked with a Manassas-based security firm about training the volunteers.

Seven veterans signed up Monday to volunteer.

State law forbids anyone other than police to be armed in schools.

If the veterans were allowed to volunteer, Wymer said he’d prefer they be armed. However, he said they’d be willing to be unarmed and serve as backup to school resource officers, who are law enforcement officers assigned to schools to provide security.

“We want to come along beside the resource officers and do everything we can to protect our kids.” he said. “Whatever is necessary for us to do that, we’re willing to go through it.”

While horrific, school shootings are rare. Since 2013, there have been about 300 in the nation’s 98,500 public schools — including suicides, accidental shootings and nonfatal shootings — according to Everytown For Gun Safety, a group that supports strengthening U.S. gun laws. That works out to shootings occurring in about 0.3 percent of American schools.

Despite the rare number of shootings, Wymer said there is a need to supplement existing school security. Wymer, who wouldn’t take a position on making it harder for mass shooters to kill by banning the sale of semi-automatic rifles or high-capacity magazines, said it’s up to the school division whether to use the volunteers.

Reached by phone after the meeting, Steve Edwards, coordinator of policy and communications for Frederick County Public Schools, said the division would prefer to have more school resource officers, but would defer to Frederick County Sheriff Lenny Millholland regarding the use of veteran volunteers.

Millholland, who attended the meeting, said afterward that it would be up to the state legislature whether to authorize using volunteers, particularly if they’re armed. If approved, Millholland said they would have to undergo strict training, including demonstrating firearms proficiency. Millholland said he respects the volunteers, but would prefer that the Board of Supervisors approve funding to hire more resource officers. He said it could take years before volunteers were providing security if the legislature approved it.

Meanwhile, Millholland said his officers remain prepared in the event of a shooting.

“It’s not where it’s going to happen, it’s when,” he said. “You never know where the next one will be, and you hope and pray that it’s nowhere.”

— Contact Evan Goodenow at egoodenow@winchesterstar.com