Public Education Armed Employee Policy, a State by State Content Analysis

Abstract

Nearly every school year there is another mass shooting or tragic violent act that is being reported by news stations throughout the United States. Every time this occurs our community members, educational leaders, teachers and politicians vow to stop these heinous acts of violence. Recently, there have been programs developed at the state level to offer a resource for public school systems to combat these acts of violence, specifically armed employee policies. This study aims to peel back the layers of armed employee policies throughout public education and across the United States. Aiming to uncover similarities, contrasting ideologies, and understanding how and why armed employee policies are or are not implemented in school districts will be addressed. Utilizing a content analysis methodology, the following questions will be addressed in regards to state level armed employee policy; a) what is the status of armed employee policy in the United States? b) how do states compare in their policy support for armed employee policy? Given the collection of information within each state level policy, distinct similarities and differences will be presented within the data.