Roberto Alonso
Lead Editor
January 9, 2019
A resolution to allow school staff in Illinois to be armed was turned down at Chicago conference.
The Illinois Association of School Boards has again put forth Resolution 2: Student Safety and Protection. This would have given schools the option for administrators, faculty, and other staff to carry a concealed weapon after completing proper training and passing background checks.
According to the 2018 Resolutions Committee Report released by the IASB, “Only staff who fulfill all requirements listed would be eligible as an active and armed part of the Student Safety and Protection Plan, upon being granted board approval.”
Oak Park District 97 was quick to go on record voting against this resolution at the Joint Annual Conference of the IASB, Illinois Association of School Administrators (IASA), and Illinois Association of School Business Officials (Illinois ASBO) on Nov. 16-18.
District 97 Board President Holly Spurlock stressed that guns don’t belong in schools, and no member of the faculty or staff should be armed.
“Teachers should be granted the space to provide instruction to our kids without worrying that they have other duties that involve serving as an armed protector of the school and classroom,” she said, “I also don’t believe in the myth that is often spread by the NRA and other gun advocate groups that ‘good guys with guns stop bad guys with guns.’ That adage is not supported by research or evidence.”
“In the denser areas, such as in River Forest where literally our police department is across the street from one of our schools, our needs are very different.”
– Condon
Head of the local chapter of Moms Demand Action Jenna Leving Jacobson said that this is the first year this proposal has been seriously considered by IASB, but that it’s been brought up in the past.
She said, “I think it’s a dangerous proposal, and that is an opinion shared by teachers, school resource officers, law enforcement and medical professionals. Moms Demand Action is an advocacy group that fights for security measures that would prevent gun violence.
The only folks encouraging the adoption seem to come from the gun lobby and communities where the gun lobby dominates. It’s a slippery slope that I don’t want us taking even one step on.”
Superintendent of River Forest District 90 Dr. Edward J. Condon said that there is no need for guns in the schools because of how close the River Forest Police Department is to all the schools.
“There are a number of schools and school districts in rural regions across Illinois where it can take first responders a significant amount of time to arrive at a school.” He said, “In the denser areas, such as in River Forest where literally our police department is across the street from one of our schools, our needs are very different.”
According to Spurlock, the distance that law enforcement would have to travel in downstate rural areas was being used to justify arming teachers.
“I think that is just a pretext that people who want to arm teachers are using to claim that they have a basis based in reason when in fact there is no evidence to support that arming teachers would do anything to make kids or schools safer. In fact, it’s the opposite.”
alonrobe@my.dom.edus
