By Police1 Staff
HUTSONVILLE, Ill. — Seeking a better way to protect her students from active shooters, and with no budget for a school resource officer, one Illinois superintendent decided to become a cop herself, according to Time.
Julie Kraemer, superintendent of a 320-student school district, began police academy training after hearing about an active shooter at a nearby high school who had wounded a student. According to The Hill, it was a teacher who finally disarmed him.
The proximity of the shooting hit close to home for Kraemer.
“I think sometimes we sit back and think it’ll never happen here, it’ll never happen to us, it’s states away,” she told Time. “But that was really close to home.”
Kraemer entered the academy in January and graduated on Sept. 22, in time to bring her new skills and training into Hutsonville hallways.
“If somebody comes in to try to hurt my kids, we have something other than a stapler to throw at them,” Kraemer told Time. “We’re no longer a soft target. We have some options.”