State plan to arm administrators catches educators off guard

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey took educators across the state by surprise last week when, just days ahead of Tuesday’s primary election, she initiated a program to arm certain school administrators.

Ivey signed an executive order launching the Alabama Sentry Program May 30, which would allow trained school administrators in facilities without a School Resource Officer (SRO) to keep a firearm on campus in a secured location to use in the event of an armed intruder.

It’s a plan that grew out of the Securing Alabama Facilities of Education (SAFE) council Ivey created in the wake of the Feb. 14 school shooting in Parkland, Florida, that killed 17. The SAFE council made 10 suggestions to improve school safety but Sentry is the first being implemented.

Ivey acknowledged there is still more to be done to ensure Alabama schools are secure, and billed Sentry as a stopgap measure until the Legislature can fund a more long-term solution.

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