By Howard Fischer
and Bob Christie
Capitol Media Services
PHOENIX -- State lawmakers are moving to provide express and specific authority to allow employees to carry guns in and around public schools.
Rep. Selina Bliss said her bill, which she has dubbed the Save Our Children School Safety Program, provides a menu of options for schools to keep their children safe. The Prescott Republican said that includes training in crisis management, including how to "de-escalate'' a situation, as well as knowing how to use medical equipment to deal with students and staff who may be injured in a school shooting situation.
But what it also does is expressly permit school officials to allow employees to carry firearms on school grounds. And the measure, approved this week on a party-line vote by the House and now awaiting Senate action, would shield them from any civil or criminal liability for actions they take during an active threat or crisis event.
As it turns out, though, it already appears to legal for teachers to arm themselves -- with school permission.
In fact, the board of the Colorado River Union High School District in Bullhead City approved such a policy two years ago. But the district has refused to answer multiple questions from the Mohave Valley Daily News, which first reported on the vote, about details of the policy and how it is being implemented.
How many other schools may be doing this remains unclear.
Heidi Vega, spokesman for the Arizona School Boards Association, said her staff is unaware of any district at all with such a policy, other than news stories. But she also told Capitol Media Services that lack of information is not surprising.
"It's important to note that, for safety and security reasons, a district may choose not to disclose such information publicly,'' Vega said.
This new measure would create a much more specific authorization. And it actually could narrow what now appears to be the wide-open -- albeit apparently little-used -- authority of school officials to designate pretty much anyone to carry a gun on campus.
Bliss said this is limited.
She pointed out her legislation would require those who want to carry a weapon on campus under her legislation to fist have to pass a certification program put together by the state Department of Education. That includes at least four hours of training on when it is proper to use force and 24 hours of actual firearms training.
"As a legislative body, it's our paramount duty to ensure that our schools remain sanctuaries of learning from the shadow of violence and equipped to face modern times,'' she said.
But Democratic Rep. Nancy Gutierrez who teaches in Tucson, called the measure "local control gone wrong.'' She said this would appear to let the principal at each school make a decision, without school board oversight, of who gets to carry a weapon on campus.
And in any event, Gutierrez said, it's putting teachers into a bad position.
"As a public school teacher, my responsibility to my students is to keep them safe, behind a locked door, in an active shooter situation,'' she said. "Who will, then, protect my students when I am not with them?''
Rep. Stephanie Simacek, D-Phoenix, said there's a more practical question,like what happens when police finally arrive on campus.
"How do they know who is allowed to have a gun and who is not allowed to have a gun?'' she asked. "How do they know who is the good guy, who is the bad guy?''
But Rep. David Marshall, R-Snowflake, said there's a simple answer.
"When police are arriving on the scene, I think that is the time when teachers should stand down, hold their ground, and just make sure the kids are safe and let the officers do their job from that point,'' he said.
Rep. Patty Contreras, D-Phoenix, said there are other flaws in the legislation.
"There is nothing in this bill that speaks to storing weapons, keeping weapons away from students, or whether the firearms would be holstered, kept in purses or in a safe.''
Bliss said that foes are focusing on just one part of her legislation and ignoring the others.
She said the program provides training for teachers to provide immediate medical care for students and others "for those that suffer multiple injuries, be it gunshot wounds, stabbings or bombings.''
Then there's the "crisis management'' training, including de-escalation techniques and "situational awareness.''
And then there's the option -- if schools agree and teachers want -- to take the classes "to defend yourself and others in what we know schools to be, and that is soft targets,'' training necessary to get certified to bring a gun onto campus.
Bliss said she was not trying to undermine the basic lesson for teachers that in these situations they should run and hide -- and fight, "but only as the last resort.''
"So this gives an option rather than being a victim,'' she said.
All this comes back to what already is allowed.
Michael Infanzon, lobbyist for the Arizona Citizens Defense League, said he sees the main purpose of HB 2022 as providing for training of teachers, at no cost to them, who want to be certified. More to the point, he said that if the measure is approved, it actually would put some limits on what is now permitted.
That existing law permits a school administrator to provide "specific authorization'' for someone to have a weapon on school grounds. What is in this legislation would narrow that, he said, allowing such authorization only for those who have gone through the certification.
It is the existing law that enabled the Colorado River Union High School District to adopt its policy. And it apparently extends beyond school staff.
During the governing board meeting, Superintendent Tim Richard said he would "immediately authorize anyone over the age of 21 with a concealed carry permit to carry a firearm.'' And the Mohave Valley Daily News reported that he named parents and community members as specific groups who have a "God-given'' right to defend themselves or their children.
The paper also said that it has been unable to get information about how those who are not employees can receive the necessary authorization or how it is enforced -- or if anyone age 21 with a concealed-carry permit can simply show up at the school armed.
In 2018, the Sierra Vista Herald reported that the Tombstone Unified School District had posted warning signs at all three campuses warning that "Some TUSD staff may be armed and will use whatever force necessary to protect our students.''
School Superintendent Robert Devere who authorized posting the signs, called it "nothing more than one small piece of school safety that we have in place on our campuses.''
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