BUTLER TWP — Preparation for school today made for a busy weekend for Butler and South Butler school districts and Butler County officials, as they worked to legally arm school security guards.

Mike Strutt, Butler district superintendent, said this morning that in the wake of Friday’s school shooting in Newton, Conn., in which a gunman killed 20 first graders in an elementary school, seven women including his mother, then killing himself, the district moved forward to arm school police.

On Dec. 10, the Butler School Board voted to arm the 18 retired state troopers who serve as guards in district schools.

“The district has yet to buy weapons for the guards, so I contacted our solicitor, Tom King, to see if the guards could carry their own weapons in the schools until the district can purchase some,” Strutt said.

King worked with Butler County Sheriff Mike Slupe, Butler County Deputy Court Administrator Tom Holman and county President Judge Tom Doerr both Saturday and Sunday on an order that would allow the guards to carry their own hand guns.

Doerr explained that school police are authorized under certain provisions of state law and the county’s president judge must approve orders for arming the guards.

In this case, and that of South Butler School District, which also asked for Doerr’s approval to arm school police today, Doerr said it was a “cut-and-dry decision.”

King agrees that Doerr’s approved order and the draft policies the guards are based on long-established policies that regulate school police and college campus police departments across the state.