CHARDON – When a teen gunman opened fire inside the cafeteria at Chardon High School three years ago, a coach named Frank Hall sprang into action.
He chased the boy outside and saved several lives.
“I chased a gunman because he went down a hallway full of classrooms,” Hall said. “I knew that if he got into that classroom, it would be bad.”
Hall shied away from giving interviews at the time. But then, Sandy Hook happened.
Hall felt he had to finally speak up about the need for school resource officers, or SRO’s, in all schools.
“I believe with all my heart that if there was an SRO at Sandy Hook, that tragedy wouldn’t have happened,” he said.
Coach Hall has since started the “Coach Hall Foundation,” a not for profit that raises awareness about the benefit of SRO’s in schools.
“There’s no reason why we as a country, the greatest country in the world, the richest country in the world, cannot put an SRO in every building in America and make it safer right now,” he said.
Hall says he believes only about 70 percent of high schools in Ohio currently have them. He said the figure is more like 10 percent when it comes to grade schools.