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Teton County School District No.1 is two weeks away from a planned vote potentially adding rigorous training requirements for district staff who want to conceal carry.
The move is in response to a new law passed during this year’s legislative session which ends gun-free zones in several public buildings, including schools. Though concealed carry bans are no longer allowed, open carry remains banned. Students are prohibited by state law from bringing guns to school even if they would otherwise qualify for a concealed carry permit.
Heather Smith, the mother of a 9-year-old in the district, encouraged bold action at a trustee meeting last week.
“There are creative ways where we can resist implementation, particularly around leveraging the property rights of the district,” she said.
It’s a conversation happening around the state’s school districts falling in line with the new law, which takes effect on July 1.
The law limits what restrictions districts can write into their own policies. For instance, the TCSD board is looking into gun training requirements for any of its employees who decide to carry concealed firearms, but cannot hold visitors to the same standards or ask about someone’s gun status.
Besides Smith, the state’s ban on gun-free zones doesn’t sit well with many parents and board members.
Trustee Jerry Bosch said writing a new policy was uncomfortable territory. He thinks concealed carry is a privilege and not a right under the second amendment.
“We are not opening our campuses or facilities, for lack of better words, to anybody to carry a gun,” he said.
He was one of the advocates for the training requirements that would apply to employees who wish to conceal carry, though the specifics of what that looks like are still being worked out.
It’s not the only hot-button issue on the plate of the seven school trustees who govern school district policy. Lawmakers also relaxed homeschool curriculum and required that schools divide bathrooms by sex assigned at birth. At the May 21 school board meeting last week, nine of the 11 policies discussed were broached in direct response to the new laws.
Teton County lawmakers voted against the gun-free zones bill during the legislative session, except for Sen. Dan Dockstader, who represents a southern portion of the county.
A final policy vote is slated for the June 11th school board meeting.
— An earlier version of this story misstated how many people sit on the school board. There are seven. — Eds.
