The school board for a Kentucky district unanimously voted to allow teachers to carry concealed guns in schools, the Lexington Herald-Leader reported.

The Pike County School Board voted Monday night to preliminarily approve the measure, allowing the board’s attorney to develop a policy with the county’s sheriff’s office on carrying the weapons. The board will then vote on the final policy.

Under the proposed plan, school staffers would volunteer to be concealed-carry guards. Each of them would undergo a background test, drug test, mental evaluation and qualification course, including firearms training by the sheriff’s office, according to the Herald-Leader.

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Pike County Schools Superintendent Reed Adkins said he hopes the policy is approved in the next couple weeks and to have armed staff in schools by the fall.

“You hope you’re making the right decision for kids, but I know right now something’s got to be done,” Adkins said. “We may be criticized, but at the end of the day I’ll take criticism to protect my students.”

Those attending the school board meeting were largely in favor of the policy, and also called for other measures to improve school safety.

Jon Akers, the executive director for the Kentucky Center for School Safety, said the idea of armed teachers “scares me to death,” warning that armed staff could cause confusion during a school shooting.

“I don’t want to put down their ideas and their efforts down there, but I want them to proceed very cautiously,” Akers told the newspaper. “Arming people who are not trained equal to that of law enforcement officers is risky.”

The idea of arming teachers has been widely debated in the weeks since a mass shooting at a Florida high school earlier this month. Trump has suggested that teachers carry concealed weapons as a strategy to deter school shootings.