ATLANTA – A geography teacher gunned down as he shepherded students into the safety of his classroom. A football coach who stood between students and a hail of gunfire. An athletic director who died trying to disarm the shooter.

Such reports emerging from the recent shooting in Parkland, Florida, have led some – including President Donald Trump – to wonder aloud if the outcome would have been different had any of those school staffers been carrying a firearm when a 19-year-old former student stormed the campus with an AR-15.

“The heroism we saw from those teachers,” said state Rep. Jason Ridley, R-Chatsworth, who is a proponent of expanding the state’s gun laws. “Let’s have the discussion: What could have changed if they were able to carry?

“You go from a zero percent chance to a 50 percent chance – which I’ll take any day – of being able to defend those students,” he said.

In Georgia, state law already lets teachers carry a firearm on campus, but only if the local school board allows it. State lawmakers packed that provision into a sweeping 2014 measure that became known as the “Guns Everywhere” bill.

Georgia is among at least five states that have passed measures allowing K-12 school employees to carry firearms since the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

So far, no district in Georgia has decided to let armed teachers into the classroom, although a couple systems are now discussing it.

The arrest of a Dalton High School social studies teacher for firing a pistol in his classroom Wednesday has given some pause. No students were present at the time.

Rep. Kasey Carpenter, R-Dalton, cautioned against knee-jerk reactions but said an on-campus shooting involving a teacher will likely “debunk” the theory – at least in the mind of some – that armed teachers may be a way to end the carnage.

“There may be more persuasive conversation that that is a solution, but just on the surface, the headline will tell you that that’s not going to work,” Carpenter said Wednesday.

Carpenter was so troubled by the Dalton High incident that he scratched his name off a legislative resolution in the works “urging” school districts to arm educators as state law allows.

Ridley, who also represents Whitfield County, said the Dalton teacher’s action should not chill talk of equipping school personnel with firearms.

Dalton Public Schools, he noted, never authorized educators to bring guns into the classroom. The teacher, Randal Davidson, faces multiple charges, including carrying a weapon on school grounds.

“That’s not what that bill was designed for because he didn’t have permission to have a gun,” he said. “So I don’t think it’s not going to have an effect in that way, but of course, it is what it is so it is concerning.”

‘What good is that going to do?’

The recent national focus on arming educators troubles Michael Thomas, who is the band director at Valdosta High School.

“You’re trying to stop school violence by potentially adding another element of violence to the school,” said Thomas, adding that he would rather see more emphasis on identifying troubled kids earlier.

But among Georgia teachers, there appears to be mixed opinions about whether school boards should allow their colleagues to carry firearms. Craig Harper, the newly named executive director of the Professional Association of Georgia Educators, said his group is currently polling members on the issue.

As for whether they would be personally willing to carry, preliminary results from that informal survey of teachers show that opinions may be somewhat evenly divided. A little more than half – 54 percent – have said they would not.

Most of the teachers say they would much rather have a school resource officer at their school bearing that responsibility, but that’s not something every district can afford, particularly for every school, Harper said.

“Anytime you add a firearm into the school environment, you would want to make sure there’s been appropriate training,” Harper said. “That’s the thing with an SRO – they’re already certified. They’ve been trained.

“They’ve thought through what it would mean to respond to an active shooter situation and put themselves in harm’s way,” he said.

The Georgia Federation of Teachers, meanwhile, is adamantly opposed to arming teachers.

“If the student has an assault weapon and a teacher has a handgun, what good is that going to do?” said the union’s president, Verdaillia Turner.

School administrators in some of CNHI’s coverage areas also voiced major reservations.

“I don’t think there would be very many of our teachers who would be comfortable doing that,” said Dusty Kornegay, Thomas County School System superintendent, adding that teachers should be focused on protecting and sheltering students in the event of active shooter.

Mary Beth Watson, who chairs the Colquitt County Board of Education, said the district has not looked at arming educators. Any such plan, though, would require thorough vetting, she said.

“We would never want what was intended to be a solution to become an opportunity for tragedy,” said Watson, who said she was specifically concerned that law enforcement could mistake an armed teacher for a threat.

“I wouldn’t want one of our teachers hurt by the very people who are coming in to help,” she said.

State response

School officials in at least two districts in Georgia – Floyd County and Bleckley County – have raised the issue of arming staff since 14 students and three teachers were killed in the Florida shooting.

State Rep. Matt Gurtler, R-Tiger, wants more districts to follow suit and act on it. He’s drafted a measure in response to the Florida shooting that urges local school boards to pave the way for armed personnel.

Noting that no districts have taken advantage of the 2014 state law, Gurtler’s resolution calls on school officials to “arm their personnel to deter persons from attempting to do violence to our children.”

The northeast Georgia lawmaker said he plans to file the measure this coming week.

“I want people to start talking about it,” he said Thursday.

There’s a flurry of other ideas swirling under the Gold Dome right now. House Speaker David Ralston has moved to put $8 million into next year’s budget for school security improvements, such as metal detectors and access card systems. He’s pushing for the Senate to match that amount.

Some ideas won’t go anywhere anytime soon, though. Sen. Michael Williams, R-Cumming, who is running for governor, has floated the concept of paying school personnel a stipend if they volunteer to carry and are willing to undergo law enforcement training.

“Basically, what you’ll have is a teacher, faculty or staff who has been trained to be, in essence, a police officer,” Williams said.

Rep. Rick Jasperse, R-Jasper, who was the author of the 2014 law, said tapping retired state law enforcement officers as part-time help would be a faster option for school districts.

But nearly four years after the law took effect, Jasperse said he still thinks there may be school districts where it also makes sense to have armed educators.

“There might be the right person,” he said. “You might have someone who’s been in law enforcement teaching English or teaching health or teaching football. There’s options there for them.”

Jill Nolin covers the Georgia Statehouse for CNHI’s newspapers and websites. Reach her at jnolin@cnhi.com. Derrek Vaughn in Valdosta, Patti Dozier in Thomasville and Maria Galvez in Moultrie contributed to this report.