A bill that would make it easier for teachers and other school employees to carry firearms is headed back to the House after passing out of the Iowa Senate Wednesday.
Schools can already authorize employees to carry weapons under current state law, but when a few districts — including Spirit Lake and Cherokee — tried to enact policies creating armed security teams they were told by their insurer that they would lose coverage.
Republican supporters said their bill (HF 2586) is meant to make it easier for districts to follow through on their plans and find affordable insurance if they choose to arm staff members, but opponents said it raises the question of who would be responsible if something goes wrong.
The bill creates a professional permit for armed school workers. It would require them to go through multiple rounds of training that would cover everything from emergency medicine to communication with law enforcement and simulated shooting scenarios.
A teacher or school worker who completes the training would be granted qualified immunity from criminal or civil liability in any situation where they use “reasonable force” at their school. The district would also be covered by qualified immunity.
GOP lawmakers believe that change will make the districts insurable, but Democrats said protection from liability would not be needed unless there was a risk that a gun could be mishandled or that an armed teacher may accidentally harm an innocent person.
“It’s an acknowledgement that that’s the expected outcome, that this will be the likely result of having untrained, unskilled, very likely unqualified people with loaded weapons in our schools,” said Sen. Sarah Trone Garriott, D-West Des Moines. “The authors of this bill understand we are putting Iowa children, teachers, school staff at risk of injury or even death.”
Republican lawmakers said the greater risk is waiting additional minutes for law enforcement to respond to an active school shooting when armed staff may have the chance to intervene sooner. Sen. Julian Garrett, R-Indianola, said he believes having the chance to stop a shooter is worth the risk of an accident.
“We’re better off taking that tiny little risk than we are taking the big risk of having nobody there to protect our children if that need arises,” Garrett said.
The bill is part of GOP lawmakers’ response to the Perry High School shooting in January which resulted in the death of principal Dan Marburger, sixth grade student Ahmir Jolliff and the 17-year-old gunman.
A separate bill passed in the House would create a grant program to help schools pay for firearms and training.
Gun control advocates condemned the legislature’s plans to clear the way for schools to arm teachers. The group Everytown for Gun Safety called on lawmakers to restrict overall access to guns instead of helping put guns in schools.
“Guns are turning our schools into graveyards, and yet, Iowa lawmakers are hell-bent on arming our teachers as a response. It literally defies all common sense,” Chloe Gayer, a volunteer leader with the Drake University chapter of Students Demand Action, said in a statement.
The bill includes a requirement for school districts with more than 8,000 students to have at least one school resource officer or private security officer present at each location that enrolls students in 9th through 12th grade. School boards would be able to opt out of that requirement, however.
The proposal passed on a vote of 30-14 and is headed back to the House after it was amended to remove a grant program to help schools pay for security officers.
