The placement of secured Junction City Police Department weapons at three secondary school sites in the city has been approved by the USD 475 Board of Education.

The schools include Junction City Middle School, the Freshman Success Academy and the Career Academy Junction City High School.

David Wild, Chief Operations Officer for the school district, said the district’s insurance provider has approved the placement of weapons safes in those schools. “As long as it’s established that the school resource officers are in fact employees of the Junction City Police Department instead of the district so that clarification has been established.  The decision will allow police to put long rifles in the schools as opposed to out in the parking lot in their vehicles.”

Those weapons would be stored inside the schools for quicker access by officers should they be needed.