Pennsylvania Bill Would Allow Teachers, School Staff to Bring Guns
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Pennsylvania bill would allow teachers, school staff to bring guns to work September 16, 2014 11:10 PM By Karen Langley / Post-Gazette Harrisburg Bureau HARRISBURG — As he returned home from Franklin Regional High School the day of the mass stabbing in April, state Sen. Don White thought of rural schools and how much longer it could take state police to respond to a similar incident at one of them, he told a legislative committee. Such districts “would be a minimum of 25 to 40 minutes away from getting state police help, minimum, unless they just happened to be luckily on patrol in that area,” said Mr. White, R-Indiana. “Everything that happened at Franklin Regional happened in less than five minutes, and police were there.” Mr. White now wants Pennsylvania school districts to be able to permit their staff — upon obtaining licensing and certification — to carry firearms in school buildings and on the grounds. His proposal received a hearing Tuesday before the Senate Education Committee. Members heard from an Indiana Area High School math teacher who supported the proposal and a Schuylkill County superintendent who was satisfied with his district’s decision to arm two staff members. The chief counsel for the Pennsylvania School Boards Association said the group’s members like to have local options, though he stopped short of endorsing the proposal. And the police chief of Susquehanna Township, which borders Harrisburg, did not oppose the measure but warned of the seriousness of equipping school workers to kill. “I can tell you that having been involved in uses of deadly force, the mental component is a very critical factor,” Chief Robert A. Martin said. “We take a lot of time and a lot of effort and a lot of hours, and it’s ongoing, in the training of our law enforcement officers to meet those legal, physical and mental thresholds to use deadly force. And you would want to be sure that the staff members or teachers that are armed, per se, are up to that commitment.” He noted the possibility that police officers arriving at the school could have difficulty distinguishing between an armed aggressor and a teacher defending students with a firearm. Recent state-level examinations of school safety have sided against arming teachers. In a report issued in November, the House Select Committee for School Safety said that testimony from state agencies, law enforcement, education groups and district attorneys led it to recommend that only school police officers or security officers be armed on school property. In December, an Advisory Committee on Violence Prevention, formed at the direction of the Senate, reported that it supported schools hiring police or resource officers but “strongly opposes arming school administrators, teachers or other non-law enforcement personnel.” “Police officers undergo extensive training in the use of their weapons and teachers do not,” the report states. “Therefore, it is unreasonable to expect a teacher to have the same firearms competency as a law enforcement officer, and not sound policy to assign such responsibility to a teacher.” Mr. White’s bill is not on the legislative fast track. After the hearing Tuesday, committee Chairman Mike Folmer, R-Lebanon, said he will review the bill again but does not believe enough time remains this fall for the committee to hold a vote. Democrats at the hearing sounded skeptical. Sen. Daylin Leach, D-Montgomery, said of his mother, a teacher: “The idea of my mother having a shoot-out with some psychotic person with an assault weapon is just preposterous.” Several members of the group Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America sat through the hearing. “There’s so many things teachers are there to do, and what their job is, and being a security guard or a police officer is not part of our job,” Kristen Bruck, a former middle school teacher who now teaches at a community college, said afterward. Karen Langley: [email protected] or 717-787-2141. First Published September 16, 2014 11:04 AM http://www.post-gazette.com/news/state/2014/09/16/Pennsylvania-bill-would-allow-teachers-school- staff-to-bring-guns-to-work/stories/201409160159.print Two Midstate superintendents hesitant about allowing school staff to carry guns SEPTEMBER 16, 2014 11:15 AM • BY DANIEL WALMER AND JOSHUA VAUGHN, THE SENTINEL A bill that would permit school districts to allow teachers and other employees to carry guns in schools took center stage at a Senate Education Committee hearing Tuesday in Harrisburg, drawing a mixed reaction from lawmakers. Two Cumberland County superintendents, meanwhile, suggested the practice could do more harm than good. Republican Sen. Donald White, R-Indiana, the prime sponsor, said at the hearing that the bill would give school boards more options for protecting students, especially those in rural areas who rely on often- distant state troopers for police protection. Mark Zilinskas, an Indiana Area High School math teacher who was the lead-off witness for the bill, said the legislation would enable school employees who are licensed and trained to use guns to prevent a mass shooting, rather than react to it. “They refer to the police as the first responders and we are the first responders. I am the first responder,” he said, “and I believe that I can make a difference and other people like me can make a difference if we have the proper tools and training.” The measure would authorize school boards to permit teachers, administrators and other staff members to arm themselves to protect students. They would have to be licensed to carry a concealed weapon and trained in the use of firearms. Proponents of the bill cited the 2012 massacre of 26 people at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut and an April knife attack at Franklin Regional High School near Pittsburgh that injured 21 people as examples of incidents that armed school employees might have stopped. “Any measure we can take to make schools safer, the better,” said state Rep. Stephen Bloom, R-North Middleton Township, whose district includes western Cumberland County. Bloom said he supported most bills that aim to create a safer educational environment, whether that was by increasing the physical security through use of cameras and making entry into schools more difficult, or by adding armed individuals who can respond to a potential threat. Bloom said that he feels shooters target schools and other “soft targets” because they know they are not going to be met with armed resistance. Sen. Anthony Williams, D-Philadelphia, however, said it is a bad idea to place such a grave responsibility on people whose principal interest is educating children. Schools Cumberland Valley School District Superintendent Fred Withum agreed that teachers have enough on their plates without the additional responsibility of carrying a weapon. “If there were to be armed people in public schools, in my mind, it would have to be certified, properly vetted and trained police officers,” Withum said. “I don’t see how a teacher, particularly in a crisis situation, is going to easily change from one hat to another and make good, fast decisions consistently without that training and experience.” South Middleton School District Superintendent Alan Moyer expressed similar concerns. As someone who grew up hunting, he understands the potential for gun accidents, he said. “I just believe that human beings make mistakes,” Moyer said. “The vast majority of serious accidents that come from guns in the home are just because of negligence or they are left loaded.” Still, he said, the concept of armed staff might be worth considering in rural school districts where police cannot respond quickly. “I do believe every district has some unique situations, and I do think keeping every option open for districts is good to talk about, but just in general ... I am not comfortable for firearms on school property,” he said. South Middleton School District prepares staff in other ways for the possibility of an armed intruder through training drills and activities that teach situational awareness, he said. The Pennsylvania School Boards Association said it preferred not to take a position on the bill, at least in part because of the public debate over the role of guns. “PSBA acknowledges that there are great differences of opinion about whether increasing the presence of firearms in schools is a wise or effective approach for enhancing school security,” its general counsel, Stuart Knade, wrote in his printed testimony. “That is not a debate in which it is necessary or productive for PSBA to take a position, and it would be difficult for PSBA to take a position on (the bill) without being perceived as jumping into that other debate.” The Associated Press contributed to this report. HARRISBURG - A bill that would allow Pennsylvania teachers and other school employees to carry guns at work drew a mixed reaction Tuesday from lawmakers. Republican Sen. Donald White, R-Indiana, the prime sponsor, said at a Senate Education Committee hearing that the bill would give school boards more options for protecting students, especially those in rural areas that rely on often-distant state troopers for police protection. Mark Zilinskas, an Indiana Area High School math teacher who was the leadoff witness for the bill, said the legislation would enable school employees who are licensed and trained to use guns to prevent a mass shooting, rather than react to it. "They refer to the police as the first responders and we are the first responders. I am the first responder," he said, "and I believe that I can make a difference and other people like me can make a difference if we have the proper tools and training." Proponents of the bill cited the 2012 massacre of 26 people at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut and an April knife attack at Franklin Regional High School near Pittsburgh that injured 21 people as examples of incidents that armed school employees might have stopped.