Proposal to Push for Legislation Allowing Teachers to be Armed Fails

The Illinois Association of School Boards rejected a proposal Saturday that would have lobbied the state legislature to give districts the option to arm teachers. 

According to a press release from the IASB, the vote was 203 to 179 against the resolution.

The measure was largely supported by rural school boards, who are concerned about the speed of police response in less densely populated areas and the budget concerns about hiring a full-time resource officer.

“Our folks culturally are not afraid of guns,” Carterville District School Board Delegate David Schwartz said. “We’re afraid of bad people who can hurt our kids and our staff members.”

Dozens of activists, educators, and public officials demonstrated against the resolution at the group’s meeting at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Chicago, calling on the IASB to vote down the proposal.

“They are talking about turning teachers into paramilitary law enforcement,” Illinois Federation of Teachers President Dan Montgomery said.

Strategies to deal with armed attackers have been discussed more aggressively in recent years after a string of mass shootings in schools.

The resolution would have led the group to push for legislation that would provide “local school boards the option of developing Protection Plans which MAY include arming administrators, faculty, and/or other staff who have completed a school district approved training course.”

Opponents of the plan argued that more guns in schools is not the answer.

“We all want our kids to be safe but we really have to look in terms of whose responsibility it is,” Flossmoor delegate Steve Paredes said.

Some political leaders, mostly Democrats, have spoken out against proposals to arm teachers, while others, including President Donald Trump, have floated the ideas as a possibility to try to prevent similar attacks to the ones that happened at Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida.

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