A Lake County school board member said he wants to give school officials a fighting chance during a school attack.

Lake County School Board Member Bill Mathias wants to give teachers and principals the opportunity to be armed inside the classroom – something President Trump has also talked about.

"If our schools go from gun free to ‘it's protected,’ then I think that alone would be a deterrent," said Mathias.

Mathias is reintroducing his armed school proposal. He discussed a similar initiative in 2013.

The proposal allows teachers to have a gun inside their classroom so that they could have it during an attack, like the school shooting in Parkland that left 17 students and teachers dead.

"My proposal called for the teachers to be defensive. That when they came into the classroom they would have their weapon stored in a safe that is biometric,” Mathias said. “It would send a signal to police a 911 call and they would stay in the classroom, they would not go out of the classroom."

President of the Lake County teacher's union Stuart Klatte said there's issues with it, like cost and liability.

"I'm afraid that we're jumping into arming teachers or talking about that as a cheap option for the safety of the students without looking at all other issues," said Klatte.

Mathias said teachers and principals who opt into it would be trained just like a deputy sheriff and will be deputized, but their service will be limited to school campus and during schools hours.

He also said there will be extensive background checks and during an attack, armed officials would wear a red vest with the words, 'Sheriff,' on it.

Mathias said his initiative would start in Lake County elementary schools since there are no school resource officers at those schools.

He plans to discuss his proposal before the school board meeting on Monday.