EVANSTON — The Evanston school board opened a preliminary discussion on whether to allow guns in schools at the Tuesday, June 20, meeting. 

The discussion was instigated because of the Wyoming Legislature’s passage this spring of House Enrolled Act 93/House Bill 194: School Safety and Security. The act allows school boards to decide whether to allow employees to carry firearms on school property. 

The law has several minimum requirements (which the school board can make more stringent, although the law also allows school boards to waive training requirements for isolated rural schools). Some of those requirements are as follows: 

• Interested employees must go through an application and approval process

• The firearm must be on the person at all times or in a concealed biometric container or lockbox in the owner’s direct control

• The school board must work with local law enforcement to establish and approve training requirements; the law requires a minimum of 16 hours of live fire handgun training and eight hours of scenario-based training, annual firearms qualification and documented recurrent training of at least 12 hours with an approved instructor

• The school board must also establish a process to revoke or suspend authorization to carry guns in schools

The board debated pros and cons of implementing a policy, honing in on what safety measures would need to be added. 

All the trustees who spoke up called for extensive training beyond the law’s minimum requirements. 

Recollections of past school shooting tragedies, including the Sandy Hook and Columbine school shootings, haunted the conversation. 

Evanston Police Lt. Mike Vranish, Uinta County Sheriff Doug Matthews and Uinta County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Rowdy Dean were present for the preliminary conversation. 

Worries about safety took a few different forms through the discussion, but the trustees agreed that the authorization process would certainly need to be more stringent, as deadly weapons are a huge responsibility to carry.

Matthews said his first concern was how people will react in an active shooter scenario at the school. 

“When you have a stressful situation, it’s really hard to keep on target,” he said. “All your fine motor skills go.” 

Vranish said the responsibility for training would be on the school district and employees, as local law enforcement does not have the resources to handle it. 

Board clerk Jami Brackin compared the 1999 school shooting at Columbine High School to last week’s attack on Republican congressmen at a charity baseball practice. At the school, 13 people died and 21 were injured after the murderers diverted law enforcement away from the school, but at the baseball practice, the active shooter was the only fatality due to the quick actions of Capitol Police, although four people were injured and Congressman Steve Scalise remains in serious condition, according to last reports. 

“We see what that can do to stop something worse,” Brackin said, “but ... for non-law-enforcement officers to have that kind of authority and that kind of power, I want them to have the same kind of training.” 

She asked if law enforcement would allow volunteering teachers to participate in their specialized school shooter trainings. Vranish said that would be an option. 

Dean added that law enforcement officers look for where the guns are, so both parties would have to learn how to respond and how to recognize each other. He suggested that employees have something to put on in an active shooter situation so they are easily recognizable. 

Fackrell had several concerns about the act, saying that, although he has a concealed carry permit (as do some of the other trustees on the board), he feels much better when law enforcement officers are the only ones with guns in schools and at school events. 

“I hated to see this passed; I’m not a real fan of it,” he said. 

As the discussion progressed, though, with many trustees favoring the act, Fackrell raised a concern that not all potential volunteers should be concentrated in just one wing of a building, and Brackin said there should be extra security (such as with cameras) in areas with fewer protections.

She also advocated to add a psychological assessment to the authorization, since law enforcement are required to pass that before officers are handed a deadly weapon. 

“I’m a proponent of [the act],” trustee David Bennett said, “simply because if I’m going to kill kids, where am I going to go? Schools.”

He said a policy should be based entirely on volunteers and keeping the names of those volunteers confidential, although the building principal, school board and law enforcement would know. 

“What happens down the road if we do nothing, and that shooter comes into our school?” Bennett asked. “... Just the idea that someone’s there to protect those kids makes me feel a hell of a lot better than no one, because it takes X-amount of time for police to get there. By then you’ve got dead kids.”

Board chair Cassie Torres acknowledged the different opinions and noted that the board doesn’t have to address the policy. 

Assistant superintendent Doug Rigby said the principals have mixed feelings on the issue, but as a former principal of Evanston High School and Horizon High School, he supports the act and shared that perspective years ago with the secondary school principals’ association. 

“As the principal at Evanston High School, I am going to be the first one when there are shots ringing out. I am going to go do whatever I can to save as many kids as I can,” he said. “Please don’t ask my wife and kids to ask me to do that with nothing but a pencil and an eraser.” 

Rigby said he thinks that teachers’ first job in an emergency is to pull kids to safety while principals are responsible to address the situation. 

Superintendent Ryan Thomas commented that the board is stuck in a no-win situation, since the board will face backlash whether it does or does not institute this kind of policy. He said it would be best to put strong safety measures in so that deadly weapons are a last resort, and UCSD No. 1 is in the process of establishing tighter security, including using the double doors and buzzing people in. 

“What keeps me up at night is this idea of someone walking into our schools to do harm to our kids,” Thomas said. “… If we could work it out, we’d hire school resource officers for every building.”

Fackrell voiced worry that students could be in danger not only from an active shooter but from teachers with weapons in a high-tension situation. 

Thomas acknowledged that there was collateral damage even at a recent terrorist attack in London where experts had to handle the emergency. 

Vranish said the key to being well-prepared is not limited to training but hinges on practice. He said that mindset and skill set should come first, even before equipment. 

When asked about gender differences in conceal carry permits, Matthews said more men conceal carry than women, but around 40 percent of the conceal carry permits are held by women. Fackrell noted that the elementary schools especially are mostly staffed by female teachers.

Vranish said women typically have more of a protective instinct, and Brackin stage whispered that women are statistically better shots as well before the trustees moved onto another topic.