(NewsNation) —Security staff at a private school in Wisconsin started carrying firearms last week, according to a report by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Security personnel at the University School of Milwaukee in River Hills, which serves students from preschool through 12th grade, started carrying firearms as a regular part of their job May 1, a school spokesperson told the newspaper.

There are about three to five members of the school’s “in-house” security team carrying guns, which will be worn underneath their jackets. All are former Milwaukee Police Department officers who had already been working at the school.

Tim Eilbes, communications director for the school, said the staff has gotten trained on “compassion, empathy, restraint, nonviolent crisis intervention, mental health awareness, de-escalation tactics, racial and other biases, and protocols for secure asset management and storage.”

Eilbes said in the Journal Sentinel that it was University School of Milwaukee school head Steve Hancock who made the decision after talking to the school’s board of trustees, legal and security consultants, security experts and local police.

Hancock wrote a letter to families that said arming security is a response to “the devastating rise in school shootings nationwide.”

A database compiled by The Washington Post shows there were more school shootings, 46, in 2022 than in any year since at least 1999. Hundreds of thousands of students, per the database, have experienced gun violence at school.

In late March, a 28-year-old former student of a private Christian elementary school in Nashville, Tennessee opened fire, killing three adults and three children.

Nashville police identified the victims as Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs, and William Kinney, all between age 9, as well as Cynthia Peak, age 61, Katherine Koonce, age 60, and Mike Hill, age 61.

The shooter also died after being taken down by police.