Packing in schools, School officials prepare for expected rebirth of concealed carry bill
Weston County School District No. 1’s days of being a gun-free zone could be coming to a close.
J.D. Williams, who won the primary for Wyoming House District 2, told the school board at its Oct. 9 meeting that House District 4 Rep. Jeremy Haroldson will bring back House Bill 125 from the 2024 budget session which passed both chambers but was vetoed by Gov. Mark Gordon.
“It will pass again, in my opinion, and in the event the governor vetoes it again, this Legislature, I’m confident, has the votes to override the veto,” Williams said.
HB 125 would allow people who may legally carry concealed weapons to carry them into government meetings, public school facilities and public school athletic events on public property that “does not sell alcoholic beverages.” Under the proposed legislation, anyone who knowingly prevents entry to someone who is legally carrying a firearm could be found guilty of a misdemeanor and have to pay a $2,000 fine or serve a prison sentence of up to one year, but the bill does contain the caveat that individual governmental entities are allowed to prohibit open carry at their meetings.
School boards also have the authority to require their employees, while on school grounds, to carry or hold secure the firearm at all times and to fulfill ongoing training requirements. That stipulation includes at least 22 hours of training and annual firearms qualification and recurrent training of at least 12 hours with an instructor.
A “very small portion” of staff have expressed interest in conceal carrying, Superintendent Brad LaCroix said. He told the News Letter Journal that some staff support conceal carry, while other staff members have said they would look for other employment if concealed carry were allowed.
Elementary school and secondary school students would not be allowed to carry a concealed firearm, and LaCroix indicated that none of the students he’s talked with believe that any student should have a firearm at school.
Williams said people who support the bill are concerned about safety.
“Any gun-free zone is a soft target for a shooter,” he said.
Williams said public facilities with metal detection and a school resource officer could be exempt, but he doesn’t anticipate that the Legislature would support providing additional funding in 2025 for security.
“Sadly, we are getting more used to unfunded mandates,” Board Chair Dana Mann-Tavegia said after Williams’ initial remarks. “We don’t like them, and we don’t like the tipping away of local control. And there are people in the Legislature who don’t want the feds telling them what to do, but they want to be able to tell us what to do. And that doesn’t sit really well with us because we think the closer we are to the situation, the better decisions we can make.”
Williams said he would be more successful in pitching the desire for “local control” if he can prove that school districts in his district are “doing something” about it. He said he believes the bill’s co-sponsors see their action as filling a void after seeing school boards’ “lack of action.”
“There would be a great case for an amendment that gives precedent to those districts that have proactively addressed this issue,” he said.
Williams encouraged parents and community members to voice their perspectives in legislative committee meetings on the bill.
LaCroix said that, several years ago, the school board decided not to allow concealed carry.
“In reading into maybe some sideline notes here or even the body language of our previous presenter, I don’t think we’re going to have the option to say no (this time),” he said.
According to LaCroix, the district needs to consider what criteria it wants people who will carry concealed firearms to meet in order to be on school grounds.
At the meeting, he posed a number of questions for consideration, such as how the district would respond if a staff member is not psychologically fit to carry a gun, how concealed carry would affect the district’s liability insurance, whether it’s legal to require drug or psychological testing in this context, what to do if someone is believed to be carrying a firearm at an athletic event and doesn’t meet the criteria to be carrying, and how law enforcement can know in a school violence scenario “who should have a gun and who shouldn’t.”
“I don’t know how you’re going to separate that out real quick,” he said. “I would think that would be a very difficult decision for law enforcement as you come in.”
“And they’ve trained for many weeks, not eight or 16 hours,” Mann-Tavegia noted, referring to law enforcement officers.
Ideally, anyone who is struggling would receive help before a school violence situation occurs, but that doesn’t always happen, LaCroix said. A teacher who chooses to conceal carry may ultimately be faced with the choice of whether — and how – to intervene when a student is preparing to shoot another student, LaCroix told the NLJ.
“It’s a very tough decision,” he said.
Newcastle Middle School Principal Tyler Bartlett said he wants the board to consider the impact concealed carry rights in school facilities would have on the tone of parent-teacher conferences.
“I might have some bad news to share with Mom and Dad. Do they have a gun on their hip while I’m sharing this bad news?” he said.
The district plans to poll district staff, parents and the student body about the issue, and board members will be present at parent-teacher conferences, Mann-Tavegia told the News Letter Journal on Oct. 14. The district has not yet developed the survey, and the board hopes to have the logistics for concealed carry discussions at parent-teacher conferences by Oct. 19.
How guns are currently handled at WCSD No. 1 schools
Superintendent Brad LaCroix told the News Letter Journal that students “are really pretty good” about taking hunting firearms to a relative’s home when their vehicle is on school grounds, but it’s possible a student could have one hidden in their vehicle. Weston County School District No. 1 staff, once they know that a firearm is on school grounds, ask the student to remove the weapon, but it’s not a “zero tolerance policy.”
“We try to handle it on a case-by-case basis as it’s brought to our attention, and usually we just ask them to remove the weapon from school grounds,” he said.
Anyone who brandishes or threatens someone else with an object, from a pencil to a firearm, faces disciplinary action, he said.