Whitefish Schools takes position on arming teachers
Hoping to retain local control over school safety, the Whitefish School Board passed a resolution to be sent to the Montana School Boards Association requiring training for anyone allowed to carry weapons in Montana schools.
MTSBA accepts late resolutions from local school board for possible advocacy during the legislative session.
“If we can all bring forward the same resolution maybe there’s a little more push behind it,” Trustee Anna Deese said in speaking to the Whitefish board last month. “Some of the language in this particular resolution is intended to preserve local control for the school districts that need it, but acknowledges that there are some districts that exist at considerable distances away from law enforcement. The goal here is to preserve local control, but frankly make the school districts that do make these sorts of decisions think really critically about it by asking that anybody who would be permitted to carry a gun on campus meet a certain level of training basically.”
The resolution also mirrors a similar resolution that Northwest Montana Association of School Superintendents is taking to state School Administrators of Montana association.
The Whitefish resolution notes that as school shootings continue to occur at increasing rates across the country, the MTSBA urges the state to require certification and annual qualification equivalent to those set by the Montanan Peace Officers Standards and Training of any school teacher, staff, administrator or other person authorized by a local school board to possess a firearm on school property.
Currently Montana law allows a school board to make the decision of who may carry a firearm on campus. While the resolution states the MTSBA opposes bringing weapons into schools and wants to further support the implementation of School Resource Officers, it recognizes how some districts in Montana are isolated enough that responses from emergency services may not be quick enough if violence at a school does occur.
The School Board passed the resolution 6-1, with outgoing Trustee Marguerite Kaminski voting in opposition.
Kaminski said the resolution felt like more regulations.
“I feel like it adds another layer of bureaucracy and another state-imposed requirement for school districts. I’m not in favor of it,” she said.
However, Trustee Shannon Hanson, who helped craft the Whitefish resolution alongside Deese and others on the policy committee, said it’s just making a statement.
“This doesn’t really add anything, all this is the MTSBA taking this stance,” he said. “This is an action item, so basically we will seek out a legislator to try to get this passed.”
Trustee Katie Clarke said she likes the proactive nature of the resolution, but wondered where the money for training comes from.
“I appreciate the policy committee inserting themselves into a bigger discussion and giving us a voice in that,” she said. “I feel like in education there are a lot of unfunded mandates where you say you have to do this, and it costs money, but keeping these people trained, who does that fall on?”
While funding would be requested from the state, Hanson said the onus falls on the districts.
“It makes the school board look at it and say, ‘Can we really afford to do this?’” he said. “Because let’s be honest, the state’s not going to fund this. So if this were to pass and become the law, it makes the school board not just say, ‘Yeah let’s get guns in here,’ but say, ‘We have parameters we have to think about.’”
Trustee Ruth Harrison said she sees the resolution as giving power to local authorities more than curtailing it.
“I kind of view this as being more empowering than restrictive. It puts some parameters on our permissions to carry in a district, and I think it puts the power right back in the local board’s hand,” she said. “You can decide whether or not you want to either allow this, and you can also be assured that you’re going to have to do appropriate training — that it’s not going to be the law of the west.”