Park County schools, college prepare for possibility of concealed carry

POWELL — While a bill passed by the Legislature that aims to eliminate gun free zones was vetoed by the governor, local school and college officials are still discussing the potential impacts of concealed carry on campus.

As he vetoed House Bill 125, Gov. Mark Gordon urged Wyoming’s school districts, community colleges and the University of Wyoming to discuss the difficult topic and “establish policies that allow for the safe carry of concealed weapons within their facilities.”

Park County School District 1 trustees took up the topic Tuesday, with Superintendent Jay Curtis noting the board had already talked about revisiting the school safety plan and discussing concealed carry policies.

“Frankly, I feel compelled to take the governor’s position seriously … he stuck his neck out big time in vetoing that,” Curtis said. “He heard from a lot of people around the state, a lot of school districts provided testimony to him to please veto it. And he really stuck his neck out and I feel obligated, we should really take that seriously and pick up that torch and have those conversations.”

Allowing concealed carry could be part of a district safety plan but is not the whole plan, Curtis said while discussing the legislation with the board.

The bill has also caused concerns among some employees at Northwest College, which doesn’t have as many options as the K-12 districts have in terms of requiring staff to be trained beyond just obtaining a concealed carry permit.

“As a college, we follow many state laws and federal regulations. If HB 125 goes into effect, the college will review and update its policy and procedures to ensure college operations align with the new statute,” NWC President Lisa Watson said prior to Gordon’s veto. “This change may be concerning for some, but we will work to manage it and follow the law as required.”

The bill had overwhelming support amongst local legislators.

Powell Sens. Dan Laursen and Tim French voted for the bill on its third reading in the Senate, while in the House Reps. David Northrup (R-Powell), Dalton Banks (R-Cowley), Rachel Rodriguez-Williams (R-Cody), Sandy Newsome (R-Cody) and John Winter (R-Thermopolis) all voted in favor.

Watson told college board members in March at the annual Cody meeting that HB 125 was a big topic at a recent meeting with faculty, and many expressed concerns about the bill and what their rights would be if it passed.

During the session, Watson attended a Wyoming Association of Community College Trustees meeting where community college leaders mostly agreed that as the bill looked likely to pass, their message to legislators was to maintain some form of local control in how it is managed by the colleges.

K-12 districts are allowed to institute a program whereby only trained, permitted staff can carry, but the final wording of HB 125 offered no such language for colleges.

The bill would bar K-12 students from carrying, but has few restrictions on college students.

Northrup, who was instrumental in passing the 2017 legislation that allowed for school districts to have trained staff concealed carry, proposed an amendment that would have barred college students from carrying a concealed firearm, but later withdrew it.

Watson said a concern for colleges is that while K-12 schools have been given money in recent years for significant security upgrades to their buildings, the state has not provided nearly the level of funding for colleges to do likewise.

“Think of what it takes to get into a K-12 building, and then to get into one of our buildings on campus,” Watson said. “We’re completely different with funding.”

The Cody school district is one of a handful currently allowing staff members to arm themselves if they meet training requirements.

PCSD1 Board Chair Kim Dillivan remembered having the conversation about arming teachers years ago and deciding against it as a board.

“We did have a conversation. Maybe it’s time to have it again,” he said, “and we talked about another school safety plan discussion.”

Under HB 125, people would be required to have a concealed carry permit in order to carry on school property — something that’s only available to Wyoming residents age 21 and up.

The bill says school districts could continue to set specific guidelines for employees who opt to carry concealed firearms, but the school district’s lawyer indicated that could be an issue.

According to attorney Scott Kolpitcke, “if someone off the street walks in and … your employee walks through that same door, and you’ve created a policy that restricted that right and gave [the employee] a different right, you’re creating a conflict,” Curtis said. “And so there were some things if it had been passed into law, there were some debates that we would have to have around that.”

The superintendent said his impression was that the district would only have the option of crafting policies related to an employee’s responsibilities.

“I use myself as an example: If I chose to arm myself and I left my firearm in a bathroom, I would expect to not have a job the following day,” Curtis said.

The superintendent said he would have been more concerned about repealing gun free zones before Utah adopted a similar law seven years ago. Although that state has seen instances of firearms left unattended, Curtis said, there have been no deadly accidents.

On a personal level, Curtis said he was opposed to unrestricted concealed carry in schools but Utah’s experience as a “case study” tempered some of this concern.

“[The policy] will be back there’s no question, and at the end of the day, because it was rushed this time, we didn’t have some critical conversations that needed to be had around this if we’re going to do it,” Curtis said.

This story was published on March 28, 2024.