Let school boards decide on arming teachers, Pa. lawmaker proposes

When it comes to whether school employees in Pennsylvania should be armed on the job, a state lawmaker is proposing to leave the decision up to school boards.

 

The measure was prompted by the number of high-profile school shootings over the past year, said state Sen. Don White, R-Indiana.

The plan, he said, came from teachers in his district.

“And their reasoning to me was, ‘Look, who knows the students better than we do? Who knows the school building and the infrastructure better than we do? We think we should have other options of defending ourselves and our students and fellow faculty than hiding in a closet or locking a door or jumping in front of bullets,'” he said.

Allowing school faculty to carry firearms might allay the concerns of parents who send their kids to rural schools, where the closest police presence might be too far away to deter a violent intruder, White said.

But the proposal also flies in the face of a recent recommendation from a House committee that studied school safety.

That committee report discourages allowing anyone but school security officers to carry firearms, based on suggestions from law enforcement and other groups.