Armed teachers may soon be a reality in Cody, Wyoming high schools as a proposed policy to permit such measures has moved up through the review process with support from most of the city’s school board, in the wake of the Parkland massacre and a more recent incident in Maryland that was quickly ended by a school resource officer.
The most recent vote for the policy, “Firearms: Personnel Authorized to Carry,” showed five Park County School District #6 trustees in favor and two against moving it forward, Superintendent Ray Schulte said.
“It passed on second reading and it’ll go to third reading in April,” Schulte said. “Typically it either has to pass or fail at that point.”
The policy would allow not only faculty but “any person employed under contract by the School District,” given that they are properly qualified, to apply for permission to carry concealed on school district property, according to the proposal’s text. It’s similar to a bill that was defeated in the state legislature just under a year ago that would have allowed concealed carry of firearms on UW’s campus.
“The faculty at the time were very, very much opposed to the idea, the staff at the time was in favor of it and our students essentially came out in the middle,” UWPD Chief of Police Mike Samp said.
For Samp, actions by the Cody school board to increase school security and the ability of its personnel to respond to threats has merit, especially considering the context of the city and its culture.
“I can certainly see the benefit, particularly for those schools that are in a more rural setting,” Samp said. “We’re fortunate here in Laramie to have what I would consider as adequate law enforcement resources and our response times are quite good. That is not likely to be the case in a lot of our rural counties where they don’t have as many resources, they may not have a law enforcement officer present. That statute was very well intended and well written and it gives that local control to those folks to make the determination on who may be qualified and who may be willing to act in those circumstances.”
Many UW students were inclined to agree that limited concealed carry on campus is a step in the right direction despite the overall murkiness of the gun control debate, as long as it’s handled properly.
“I feel like it would be safer for teachers to have concealed carry than not, with all the school shootings,” Physiology major Paige Osborn said. “If we did have concealed carry I think it should only apply to professors and other personnel.”
Kinesiology major Austin Farkas felt that a wider concealed carry policy would be more suited to larger campuses than for high schools.
“It would make more sense on a college campus since they’re more spread out,” Farkas said. “I feel like in a high-school setting there’s not a need for that many guns in that small of an area.”
Equine Science major Abigail Trubia, who is familiar with both rural and heavily urban high school environments, took a more speculative stance and also focused on the importance of location—even down to whether a student lives in the residence halls or off-campus in their own housing.
“You’d have to look at specific demographics, who’s carrying it—it’s so case-by-case that it’s hard to have an opinion,” Trubia said.
Most students also stressed the importance of proper training and evaluation for school personnel who choose to carry concealed, something that Laramie law enforcement is keenly aware of for both the possibility of armed staff and faculty in the future and for Laramie’s police forces in the present, Samp said.
“My concern as a chief of police is always making sure those weapons are secured at all times, that those folks that are making those decisions and stepping up have the true training that they need to be able to perform those capacities,” Samp said. “We take that same approach with our law enforcement officers and it’s an ongoing process—and to put teachers in that position or to ask teachers to step into that role is a bit of stretch given their typical obligations, but again, folks come from all backgrounds.”
The effectiveness of properly trained, equipped and able individuals to react to and quickly end active shooter situations has gained another empirical example following the incident in Maryland on Tuesday, March 20. School resource officer Blaine Gaskill confronted a student who opened fire with a handgun, managing to injure only two students—though one student remains in critical condition. It remains unclear if it was Gaskill’s weapon that ended the aggressor’s life or his own after Gaskill presented an armed response.
“That is how the system is supposed to work,” Samp said. “From a reactionary standpoint, I think that went about as well it could. The law enforcement officer that was there did his job, he addressed the threat, he undoubtedly saved lives.”
As time moves on and these recent events contribute to the debate, Samp anticipates that the subject will return to the UW campus in the near future.
