Sheridan County school district talks about repealed gun free zones
‘I’ve never had to wrap my head around this one’
SHERIDAN — As many of Wyoming’s gun free zones will be repealed July 1, the Sheridan County School District 1 Board of Trustees discussed during a March 4 work session what that will look like in the respective school district.
House Bill 172 — Repeal gun free zones and preemption amendments — became law without the signature of Gov. Mark Gordon on Feb. 27.
HB 172 allows concealed carry in any schools, government buildings and meetings, as well as college and university events that do not serve alcohol.
The bill includes exemptions for early childhood centers licensed or operated by state agencies, as well as prohibiting students from carrying in a high school they’re currently enrolled to attend and Wyoming Department of Corrections facilities, according to previous Sheridan Press reporting.
Board of trustees in each school district may adopt rules and regulations to govern employees and volunteers lawfully carrying concealed weapons in Wyoming.
The rules shall establish ongoing training requirements, curricula and instructor qualifications — in consultation with local law enforcement. The training requirements include an initial course of training comprised of not less than 16 hours of live fire handgun training and eight hours of scenario based training. Training on firearms and ammunition, an annual firearm qualification and documented recurrent training of not less than 12 hours with an approved instructor are also required, according to the bill.
The board discussed the schools keeping updated concealed carry permit records of employees and volunteers but questioned how to maintain permit records of substitute teachers, especially since schools might have two or three new substitutes every month.
“It’s a bit of an administrative problem for us, right? Because if a sub wants to conceal carry, they have to present their concealed carry permit, you have to have a record of that and then we would require the training to occur. If they don't, then they don’t get to conceal carry,” SCSD1 Business Manager Jeremy Smith said. “We get to regulate them as employees. We don’t get to regulate members of the public, but we do get to regulate that.”
Although SCSD1 Superintendent Jeff Jones said that while he is not a gun owner, he’s not anti-gun. He said he’s been trying to wrap his head around any possible scenarios and what his responsibilities and expectations would be in a crisis.
“I hate to think of the scenarios, but is it responsible on my end to conceal carry because I may need to intervene? I’m trying to wrap my head around that — this is somebody who’s been in education for over 30 years — I’ve never had to wrap my head around this one. So I’m going to have to process that,” Jones said.
Smith said there should never be an expectation for someone to obtain a concealed carry permit.
“What may happen is that you may brandish that weapon in defense of yourself or someone else and have to act. Even if you’re trained and feel very comfortable in your training, sometimes in that moment you just aren’t able to execute your training and that can happen to anybody,” Smith said. “It’s not a lot of training, but someone has to be fairly dedicated to do this. I don’t think we’re going to have 100 employees sign up. I think it’s going to be very few, but those very few will likely be good people who can do good things when they need to, but not even 100% of them will be able to act appropriately at the time. Insecurity, unsureness and panic will set in on anybody at any time.”
Jones said the school district will know more in the coming days and weeks, so the board will have a lot of time to discuss the new law.
SCSD1 Board Clerk Morgan Stalick said she is waiting to see what the Wyoming School Boards Association’s model policy looks like.
“I am anxious to see what kind of the model policy comes out to look like (and) just try to develop our policy and what works for us, but kind of having that basis of where do we start with these new guidelines,” Stalick said. “Whatever this model policy comes out from the WSBA and through their council, I want to see it to see if there are pieces and parts of it that I feel like, ‘Yeah, we do need to consult our employees, we do need to consult our parents,’ and how it’s going to be implemented.”
Although Sheridan County Sheriff’s Office Deputy and School Resource Officer Boot Hill said he sees both sides of the claim that having concealed carry individuals in the schools would increase safety, he said that as SRO he believes “The fewer guns in a school building, the better.”
“If we’re going to allow that, I think we need to increase our safety measures in some way for our students and our staff…There’s got to be a check and balance there, is what I’d like to see,” Hill said.
This story was published on March 5, 2025.