The Clarksville School District is making national headlines after the Attorney General pulled the plug on their plan to arm school faculty.
Clarksville Superintendent David Hopkins carries a gun. He said the shootings in Decatur, Georgia were avoidable.
"The events that happened yesterday in Atlanta just reinforce what we are trying to do," Hopkins said. "You've got to have some meaningful security in place for your kids. Your kids are that important. The reality is that if you've got a 10 foot tall fence somebody's going to find an 11 foot tall ladder.”
Hopkins and about 20 other faculty members went through a $70,000 training program to carry firearms this school year but now there is no program to show for the money spent that's left parents concerned.
“The program did not happen, of course they didn't want the program to happen either and now I guess they are turning around and trying to say well you know you've wasted money.”
Hopkins said he praises the efforts by a school worker in the Georgia school to get the shooter to calm down.
“That was not part of what we were doing, our goal with this emergency response team is to neutralize a bad situation and that's what they're trained to do. They're not negotiators.”
Hopkins said there are options to keep students safe but not to the extent his kids need.
“What we can do is hire a guard company that provides someone that's 21-years- old, a high school diploma and 10 hours of training that's the minimum and they can carry a gun our campus but these other individuals can't, doesn't make any sense.”
For now, he and his attorney are in a waiting game until they are allowed to appeal the decision that ended the program. Hopkins said he plans to have the selected faculty and staff carry guns before the end of the school year.