Iowa House bill would allow school employees to carry guns at school

By Amanda Rooker

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    IOWA (KCCI) — Some Iowa House Republican lawmakers advanced a bill through subcommittee Monday that they say would make schools safer.

House Study Bill 675 would require larger school districts to employ a school security officer. It would allow any school employee with a permit to carry weapons at school.

The bill creates a new permit for school employees. Anyone who wants a permit would first have to complete in-person legal training and annual medical and communication training.

Permitted school employees would be required to attend annual live scenario training and quarterly in-person firearm training.

The bill would also require schools with more than 8,000 students to hire at least one school resource officer or a private security officer to guard high school attendance centers.

The state would also provide grant money to help schools fund security personnel.

Roosevelt High School senior Hannah Hayes said the bill would make her feel less safe at school.

“As a student myself, I can tell you that adding more guns to schools is not going to make me safer. Making schools a war zone is not going to make me feel safer,” Hayes said.

Hayes said the bill lacks oversight and accountability to guard against unintended consequences and said she does not believe the bill provides meaningful protection.

“A study of every intentional school shooting from 1980 to 2019 found that there was no relationship between having an armed officer on the school grounds and the rate of injuries,” Hayes said. “After controlling for other factors, there were three times as many deaths in incidents with armed officers present. The more guns that are coming into the equation, the more volatility and the more risk there is of somebody getting hurt.”

But others, including Spirit Lake Community School District Superintendent David Smith, argued the bill is necessary to better protect students and teachers.

Last year, Spirit Lake’s public school district approved a policy allowing staff to carry guns on campus, but later repealed it when their insurance company threatened to terminate their contract.

“We can’t go another day, another month. When people say it’s not going to happen to us, it just happened right here in Iowa, and it’s going to happen again,” Smith said. “We’re asking you to do everything you can to help us get the insurance that we need [and] put the safety measures in place that we need to make this happen.”

In the wake of last month’s deadly shooting at Perry High School, Smith said schools need more protection immediately.

“The people who are carrying in our district love our kids [and] know our kids. They’re willing to put their lives on the line to protect kids that are not their own,” Smith said. “All I’m asking is to give those people a chance to go home to their families, unlike the Perry principal, because we know once the shooter is addressed, they stop killing people.”

Iowa House Republican lawmakers advanced the bill through subcommittee, but said they do plan to make some changes to this bill to address the insurance issues that some schools are facing.

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