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‘I Have to Be Able to Protect My Kids.’ This Superintendent Became a Cop So She Could Carry a Gun at School
For the first time in her 20 years as an educator, Julie Kraemer carried a gun to school last week. It marked the culmination of nine months of police academy training for the Hutsonville, Illinois superintendent, who became a law enforcement officer so she could carry a concealed weapon at school and respond to an active shooter if necessary — something she says was “not even on my radar” a decade ago.
“If somebody comes in to try to hurt my kids, we have something other than a stapler to throw at them. We’re no longer a soft target. We have some options,” says Kraemer, who graduated from the police training program on Sept. 22. “I’m just going to be a superintendent that happens to also be a police officer.”
Kraemer’s law enforcement training is one example of the lengths to which educators are now going to try to boost school security and keep students safe as school shootings continue to occur with alarming frequency.
She began her training in January, before 17 people were killed in a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School or 10 in a shooting at Santa Fe High School in Texas. But Kraemer had often worried that her rural district — which serves about 320 students, all on the same campus — would be a soft target because there aren’t many first responders in close proximity.
“I think sometimes we sit back and think it’ll never happen here, it’ll never happen to us, it’s states away,” says Kraemer, 51. “But that was really close to home.”
More at This Superintendent Became a Cop So She Could Carry a Gun at School
For the first time in her 20 years as an educator, Julie Kraemer carried a gun to school last week. It marked the culmination of nine months of police academy training for the Hutsonville, Illinois superintendent, who became a law enforcement officer so she could carry a concealed weapon at school and respond to an active shooter if necessary — something she says was “not even on my radar” a decade ago.
“If somebody comes in to try to hurt my kids, we have something other than a stapler to throw at them. We’re no longer a soft target. We have some options,” says Kraemer, who graduated from the police training program on Sept. 22. “I’m just going to be a superintendent that happens to also be a police officer.”
Kraemer’s law enforcement training is one example of the lengths to which educators are now going to try to boost school security and keep students safe as school shootings continue to occur with alarming frequency.
She began her training in January, before 17 people were killed in a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School or 10 in a shooting at Santa Fe High School in Texas. But Kraemer had often worried that her rural district — which serves about 320 students, all on the same campus — would be a soft target because there aren’t many first responders in close proximity.
“I think sometimes we sit back and think it’ll never happen here, it’ll never happen to us, it’s states away,” says Kraemer, 51. “But that was really close to home.”
More at This Superintendent Became a Cop So She Could Carry a Gun at School
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