Despite calls from civil rights groups to veto the legislation, Gov. Andy Beshear on Friday signed a bill requiring school police to carry guns.

All Kentucky schools are now required to have at least one armed police officer under state law, effective immediately.

While understanding opposition to the measure, Beshear said at a press conference Friday he could not allow officers to not have the weapons they may need in confronting a school shooting.

“I simply cannot ask a school resource officer to stop an armed gunman entering a school without them having the ability to not only achieve this mission, but also to protect themselves,” Beshear said. “We must be able to stop the worst of the worst.”

Signing Senate Bill 8 is best for the state as a whole, he continued.

Moving forward, Beshear said his administration will work on training officers to "start addressing the reason some kids might not feel safe because of a police officer."

Beshear's decision comes after the bill passed the Senate and House with large bipartisan margins, making a veto almost guaranteed to be overridden.

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Sen. Max Wise, the bill's sponsor, said in a statement the legislation is "crucial ... to protect Kentucky's children, teachers and staff by improving the safety of our schools."

Civil rights activists, mainly those in Jefferson County, pushed against the bill, arguing it would not make schools safer. Instead, it would adversely impact students of color.

Beshear had until Friday to either sign the bill, veto it or let it become law without his signature.

In the waiting period, groups including Black Lives Matter heightened campaigns to convince the Democratic governor to veto the bill.

School board members in Kentucky's largest district also opposed the legislation. Two Jefferson County school board members, Chris Kolb and Joe Marshall, signed a letter asking Beshear to reject the bill.

Marshall said then he believed the decision whether to arm officers should be made at the local level by district school boards.

Executive Cabinet Secretary J. Michael Brown said Friday afternoon that he spoke with opponents of the bill from Louisville for over an hour this week to hear their concerns.

Brown stressed that the administration is now "open to all suggestions" on curriculum and training for school resources officers from those critics, which will be conducted by the Department of Criminal Justice Training in Richmond.

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"The best way to ultimately address those concerns is to include those voices and make sure that they have a chance to help us develop curriculum to help us address where this concern comes from," Beshear said.

James Craig, a Jefferson County school board member who had criticized SB 8, said Beshear called him soon after Friday's announcement.

They had a "good conversation" about JCPS' concerns, Craig said. Beshear invited the JCPS board to help develop training for the officers — an offer Craig said he will take him up on.

After Beshear's announcement, concerns lingered, particularly regarding how the law could hurt black students.

While research shows all children behave similarly, black students are disproportionately punished, suspended and arrested in schools.

"(I'm) terrified to see what these numbers look like in terms of gun use toward black children," Jessica Duenas, a Jefferson County educator and Kentucky Teacher of the Year, tweeted.

Sadiqa Reynolds, the president and CEO of the Louisville Urban League, tweeted that her daughter, a ninth grader, said, "They are going to have people with guns in our school. Did you know they did that? Will it start Monday? I'm scared."

Armed school officers have long been a controversial topic in Jefferson County Public Schools.

Jefferson County school board members axed contracts with local police agencies for school resource officers in August, partially over concerns of having armed police in schools who were not accountable to district officials.

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The vote hastened a district plan to create its own in-house security team, which has taken months to develop and nears a board vote.

Under the proposal, JCPS officers will carry handguns but will have them concealed. Officers won't wear standard police uniforms, but suit jackets, khakis and breakaway ties.

Officers will be required to take an extra weapons course and will be trained in areas such as implicit bias and deescalation tactics.

Each year, JCPS officers will undergo 100 hours of training — more than double what is required under state law.

District officials assumed SB 8 would become law, and already updated JCPS' proposed security plan to comply with the legislation.

JCPS' proposal is expected to head to a board vote this spring. District officials hope to have the first round of officers in schools by August.

Reporter Joe Sonka contributed to this story. Reach Olivia Krauth at okrauth@courierjournal.com or 502-582-4471, and on Twitter at @oliviakrauth. Support strong local journalism by subscribing: courier-journal.com/subscribe.