February 27, 2018
This Kentucky school district just voted to let teachers carry concealed guns
PIKEVILLE – Teachers could soon be carrying concealed guns inside schools in Pike County under a proposal that was preliminarily approved Monday evening by the Pike County School Board.
The unanimous decision came after the board heard concerns about school safety from teachers, parents and administrators during a town hall meeting at Pike County Central High School.
The move to arm teachers and staff follows multiple school shootings in recent weeks, including one at Marshall County High School in Western Kentucky that left two dead and another in Florida that left 17 dead.
“This program … could be a model for the rest of the state and, possibly, the country,” said state Sen. Ray Jones, D-Pikeville, who attended the meeting.
The motion authorizes the school board’s attorney to work with the Pike County Sheriff’s Office, which would oversee the program, to finalize a formal policy for the school board to consider.
Pike County Schools Superintendent Reed Adkins said he hopes the board will give final approval within two to three weeks, and to have armed staff in schools by fall, if not sooner.
“You hope you’re making the right decision for kids, but I know right now something’s got to be done,” Adkins said. “We may be criticized, but at the end of the day I’ll take criticism to protect my students.”
Nearly everyone who spoke at the meeting supported the idea of arming staffers who would be trained by the Sheriff’s Office, but many offered other suggestions to improve school security, such as door locks and cameras, and more counseling opportunities for troubled students.
Under the new proposal, school employees could volunteer to serve as concealed-carry guards at schools throughout the county. Each volunteer would be subject to a background test, drug test, mental evaluation, and a qualification course, including firearms training, led by the Sheriff’s Office, which offered to provide the training for free.
“This is not an action to force teachers to do something they’re uncomfortable with, or are unwilling to do,” said Timothy Cline, an English teacher at Pike County Central High School who supported the effort. “It’s a big decision, granted, but it’s one we need to make now.”
Each armed person would have to re-qualify multiple times a year, possibly as many as four times, to serve as an armed guard, said Eddie Crum, a detective with the Sheriff’s Office.
Crum also said the Sheriff’s Office will perform unannounced inspections to assure that the firearms are properly concealed and that the deputies are in compliance with the program’s guidelines.
“I think it’s a good idea if it’s ran right,” Crum said.
The firearms training would include shooting at paper targets and more intensive combat training, said Lynn Cross, chief deputy at the Sheriff’s Office.
The public was largely supportive of the idea, but many complained that poor security at Pike County schools also creates major safety issues.
“A gunman could walk in at any time and kill those kids,” said Connie Compton, a teacher at Shelby Valley High School. “My room is within five seconds of a door that you can go in and out of at any time.”
Compton said that before thinking about armed “resource officers,” another term for sworn law-enforcement officers, “we need to get schools locked down first.”
The idea of arming teachers has created political controversy in recent weeks, with President Donald Trump backing the idea while others push for gun control measures, including a ban on high-powered semiautomatic rifles.
State Sen. John Schickel, R- Union, has introduced Senate Resolution 172 that would urge boards of education to allow teachers and other school personnel to carry firearms for their own protection. Under current federal and state law, school boards can contract with someone, including a teacher or other school staff, to allow them to carry firearms on school grounds, according to state education officials.
Another proposal, Senate Bill 103, would allow public and private schools in Kentucky that cannot afford to hire a resource officer to designate one of their employees as an armed “school marshal.”
School resource officers are sworn law-enforcement officers with specialized training and established relationships with local police agencies. But given budget constraints, there are only 230 of them in roughly half of Kentucky’s counties, according to the Kentucky Center for School Safety.
Fayette County Schools employ 35 resource officers to watch over its 67 schools and programs. In response to recent school shootings, the district has created a safety advisory panel to consider the idea of stationary metal detectors in schools and is implementing several other security upgrades, including expansion of its anonymous tip lines, providing schools with more hand-held metal detector wands and expanding emergency drills.