Page 4 - aruba-today-20220614

A4 U.S. NEWS
Tuesday 14 June 2022
Ohio governor signs bill allowing armed school employees

Associated Press violent felons caught with
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — guns and ensure that men-
Ohio school districts could tally ill people don't have
begin arming employees guns if a court deems them
as soon as this fall under a dangerous to themselves
bill signed into law Monday and others.
by GOP Gov. Mike DeWine. Cracking down on vio-
The law, as enacted, re- lent felons is also a way to
quires up to 24 hours of protect children, the gov-
training before an employ- ernor said. "We're seeing
ee can go armed, and up a lot of children who are
to eight hours of annual killed not in school, but in
training. The training pro- their own homes, on their
grams must be approved own streets," DeWine said.
by the Ohio School Safety "And they're killed by vio-
Center, and DeWine an- lent offenders, and they're
nounced he's ordering usually repeat violent of-
the center to require the fenders, who are shooting
maximum 24 hours and the randomly, or shooting at
maximum eight hours. somebody and the kid gets
Schools can provide addi- in the way."
tional training if they wish, Last year, 120 children died
DeWine said. of gunfire, compared to 96
Before announcing the bill in 2020 and 71 in 2019, ac-
signing, the governor out- cording to state Health De-
lined several other school partment data.
safety measures he and Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine discusses a law that gives school districts the option of arming trained DeWine on Monday once
lawmakers have promoted, school employees, on Monday, June 13, 2022, in Columbus, Ohio. again called on fellow Re-
including $100 million for Associated Press publican lawmakers to
school security upgrades approve those measures,
in schools and $5 million for resource officers, but said shooting that killed 19 ele- Whaley also criticized DeW- though they've shown no
upgrades at colleges. the law is another tool for mentary students and two ine for previously signing interest in the bills so far.
The state is also adding 28 districts that want to pro- teachers. bills that eliminated Ohio- Democrats have said the
employees to the school tect children. He empha- "All of these things are com- ans' duty to retreat before law sends the wrong mes-
safety center to work with sized that it's optional, not a mon sense," said Toledo using force — the so-called sage coming so soon af-
districts on safety issues and requirement. Mayor Wade Kapszukie- "stand your ground" bill — ter the Uvalde massacre.
to provide training under Several big-city Ohio may- wicz. "We're in a situation and made a concealed Republicans say the mea-
the new law. Ohio has also ors — all Democrats — where we can't pass legis- weapons permit optional sure could prevent such
provided $1.2 billion in well- joined together Monday lation that 95% of our citi- for those legally allowed to shootings. Lawmakers fast-
ness funding for schools to afternoon to criticize the zens support." carry a weapon. The con- tracked the legislation to
address mental health and measure and failure of Also Monday, former Day- cealed weapons change counter the impact of a
other issues, the governor Republican lawmakers to ton Mayor Nan Whaley, took effect Monday. court ruling that said, under
said. consider any gun control DeWine's Democratic op- "The politics got hard and current law, armed school
The new law "is giving proposals. The mayors are ponent for governor, criti- Mike DeWine folded," workers would need hun-
schools an option, based seeking universal back- cized DeWine for signing Whaley said. "Nine people dreds of hours of training.
on their particular circum- ground checks, red flag the armed school em- in Dayton was worth the The measure is opposed
stances, to make the best laws to take firearms away ployees bill, saying he had political risk." by major law enforcement
decision they can make from anyone who is per- failed to make good on his In the wake of the Day- groups, gun control ad-
with the best information ceived a threat, raising the promise to address gun vio- ton massacre, DeWine vocates, and the state's
they have," DeWine said. legal age for gun purchas- lence after a mass shooting announced his "STRONG teachers unions. It's sup-
The governor said his pref- es to 21, and a ban on as- in Dayton killed nine people Ohio" plan to address gun ported by a handful of
erence remains that school sault rifles like the kind used and wounded more than violence. His proposals in- police departments and
districts hire armed school in the Uvalde, Texas, school two dozen in August 2019. clude higher penalties for school districts.q

Yellowstone flooding sweeps away bridge, washes out roads

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Ma- to evacuate the northern er flood levels in areas of a substantial amount of Recent heavy rains and
jor flooding swept away at section of the park where the park's southern loop, in time," he said. spring runoff also led to
least one bridge, washed we have multiple road and addition to concerns with The park was experiencing flooding in southern Mon-
away roads and set off bridge failures, mudslides water and wastewater sys- record flooding, officials tana, with water running
mudslides in Yellowstone and others issues," Sholly tems, we will begin to move said. down streets in Red Lodge
National Park on Monday, said in a statement. visitors in the southern loop Scientists say without exten- on Monday. Evacuation
prompting officials to close The community of Gar- out of the park later today," sive study they cannot di- orders have been issued in
the entrances to the popu- diner, Montana, just north Sholly said. rectly link a single weather Carbon County, the Office
lar tourist attraction and of the park, was isolated Officials won't be able to event to climate change, of Emergency Manage-
evacuate visitors. because the roads going say when the park might re- but climate change is ment said.
The flooding hit after recent in and out of town are im- open until the flood waters responsible for more in- Montana has been deal-
"unprecedented rains," passable, officials said. The subside and they can as- tense and more frequent ing with flooding while
park officials said on Face- power is out in some areas sess the damage, he said. extreme events such as elsewhere in the West wild-
book. of the park. "It is likely that the north- storms, droughts, floods fires burned in hot, dry and
"Our first priority has been "Due to predictions of high- ern loop will be closed for and wildfires. windy weather.q