Pennsylvania District Becomes First To Arm Teachers

Via Patch.com

Should Pennsylvania teachers carry guns? One school district, which recently became the state’s first to pass a policy allowing teachers and administrators to carry guns in schools, thinks the answer is yes.

Last month, the Tamaqua Area School District approved a policy that allows “administrators, teachers, or other employees” to have guns on school district property. Staff members who carry guns must first be approved by the district’s board, and must meet specific training and certification requirements, according to the policy.

The decision to allow armed teachers in the district, which is located in Schuylkill County about 35 miles Northwest of Allentown, is controversial. Many local parents oppose the concept, and have launched the Tamaqua Citizens for Safe Schools Facebook group as well as an online petition.

But school board member Nicholas Boyle told WHYY in an interview he thinks the initiative will protect students and act as a deterrent. “Nobody really knows who’s carrying, so the security guard or police officer wouldn’t be targeted first,” Boyle told the network.

As school shootings continue to plague students across the country, some lawmakers, including President Donald Trump, have advocated for arming teachers. In Pennsylvania, a bill allowing teachers to carry handguns was proposed but did not pass.

But many parents and even students in Tamaqua, where the prospect of armed teachers is now a reality, are fighting the idea. One student who signed the petition against arming teachers said they don’t feel safe going to school anymore.

“Guns in the hands of educators does not prevent school violence. It just increases the chances that there will be a gun discharged in a school. Education and prevention are a solution,” another person who signed the petition said. So far 164 people have signed it.

At least eight states, including Texas, Kansas, and Idaho, have policies that allow non-security personnel to carry guns, according to a report prepared by the Education Commission of the States. Pennsylvania is not one of those states, but Boyle tells WHYY that he believes his district is on solid legal ground because there is no law that explicitly bans it.

In February, Pennsylvania’s biggest teacher’s union weighed in on the concept of arming teachers, saying it opposes policies that would increase the number of guns in schools. Such a plan would actually make students less safe, a statement issued by President Dolores McCracken said. PSEA said it is not opposed to the use of “appropriately trained” armed school safety guards.

McCracken’s statement was in response to comments by President Donald Trump, who said after the school shooting in Parkland, Florida that he supports giving concealed guns to teachers with military or special training experience — “only the best,” he wrote in a tweet.

Trump has previously called “gun-free” schools a “magnet for bad people,” and allowing qualified teachers to carry guns in the classroom would cost less than hiring guards and could be a powerful tool to curbing mass shootings at schools. “Highly trained, gun adept, teachers/coaches would solve the problem instantly, before police arrive,” he tweeted. “GREAT DETERRENT!”

But the majority of Pennsylvania educators are not in agreement. “We strongly oppose state and federal efforts to put more guns in schools,” the PSEA statement on the issue said.

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