A national report on school safety - put together by former U.S. Rep. Asa Hutchinson for the National Rifle Association - includes a sample draft of a law for states wanting to allow school administrators, teachers or other staff members to carry concealed weapons on campus.
But in Arkansas, school districts already can pursue a little-known avenue that allows their employees to become private, licensed security guards who are armed while on campus.
This practice has been in place at the Lake Hamilton School District, in Garland County, since the late-1990s, mass school shootings at Westside Middle School near Jonesboro and Columbine High School in Colorado, said Superintendent Steve Anderson, who as a private, licensed security guard is allowed to carry a concealed weapon on campus.
Since the December shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., several Arkansas school districts have called Anderson with questions about how he and other Lake Hamilton school personnel obtained security-guard licenses.
Arkansas State Police spokesman Bill Sadler said a two-part process allows school districts to designate certain staff members as armed security guards.
“There are several school districts in the state that are using the Arkansas private-security-guard laws to license the district as a company that can hire private security guards from among their own employees,” Sadler explained.
Those employees must then undergo the training required to become private, licensed security guards, he added.
Sadler was unable Wednesday to provide an accurate number of school districts that use that law to arm staff members, but said he should have that information available today.
The subject came up at a Wednesday afternoon news conference in Little Rock, shortly after Hutchinson said his proposal for the National School Shield initiative includes a sample of a law that would need to be passed in many states - including Arkansas - if school districts are interested in arming designated staff members.
Those who attended the news conference included Republican Arkansas Sens. Jason Rapert, Jim Hendren and Missy Irvin; sheriffs from Boone and Faulkner counties; superintendents from Clarksville, Fountain Lake, Cutter Morning Star and Lake Hamilton school districts; and Faulkner County Prosecuting Attorney Cody Hiland.
Hutchinson described the group members as key players in putting together his proposal for the NRA, which is still considering whether it will adopt - and therefore help fund - “the National School Shield.” Hutchinson, a Republican, is running for governor of Arkansas.
During a discussion Wednesday about the sample law - and whether Arkansas teachers and students would be uncomfortable with guns on campus - Anderson told the group that at the Lake Hamilton district, there already is an armed emergency-response team that was created years ago to serve as a stop-gap in the minutes between a disaster and the arrival of first responders.
While mass school shootings are still relatively rare, such tragedies weigh heavily on the minds of educators each and every day, Anderson said.
“I’ve got parents of almost 4,400 students who put their trust in our school personnel to take care of their babies,” he added. “I take that very seriously.”
Anderson said he has never pulled his gun. A few times, he’s shown people his license or badge, but only when he felt that there was a mild threat or when trying to reassure parents after the Sandy Hook shooting.
Former Lake Hamilton Superintendent Don Hensen researched the laws and became the state’s first armed superintendent sometime after the Jonesboro and Colorado school shootings, Anderson said.
As for Anderson, he obtained his private, security-guard license 12 years ago, when he was an assistant superintendent at the Lake Hamilton district.
Other districts that have followed suit - or are in the process of doing so - include Cutter Morning Star, Fountain Lake and Clarksville, Anderson said.
Nancy Anderson, superintendent of Cutter Morning Star, said she is on track to become a private, licensed security guard.
Schools need to be considered safe places, she said, adding, “we can’t educate in an environment in which [students] are scared.”
She likens an educator’s response to a school shooting to what staff members would do if a school caught fire.
“We’d run into a burning building for these kids,” she explained.
Steve Anderson agreed. In a later interview, he put it this way: “Those poor ladies at Sandy Hook - they didn’t run away from the shooting. They responded to it and basically gave up their lives trying to do it.”
And even if Steve Anderson didn’t have a license and a firearm, he would still run toward the shooter, he said.
The training for a private, security-guard license lasts one day.
It involves not only a background check, but also written and field tests, Steve Anderson said. The license expires after two years if the carrier doesn’t participate in the required biennial training.
The licenses are issued by the Arkansas Board of Private Investigators and Private Security Agencies, which falls under the purview of the Arkansas State Police.
The superintendents at Wednesday’s news conference said they support Hutchinson’s proposal because it would offer, and - in some cases, pay for - more extensive and intense training.
“If we have individuals willing to lay down their lives … to protect our children, then we need to have the proper training. That is key. We need to have the ability to have the tools, whatever they may be, to protect ourselves,”Steve Anderson said.
At the Lake Hamilton district, Anderson and three or four other staff members are licensed as private security guards. He declined to give a specific number.
“We have a small number of school personnel, most of us professional educators, who are licensed and have access to guns. The majority of our emergency team doesn’t carry them on their person at all times.”
The weapons are kept in a “double-lock situation,” Steve Anderson said.
In addition to the armed emergency-response team, the district employs three armed security guards who wear uniforms. Two work part time. The third is a full time guard.
Parents have long been aware that some school staff members are armed on campus, Steve Anderson said. And in a letter that he wrote after the Sandy Hook shooting, he reminded everyone of the district’s armed emergency-response team.
He is quick to note that Lake Hamilton’s approach to school security isn’t appropriate for every district, but he thinks it would work well at rural Arkansas schools.
“I know there will be those, especially on a national level, who think we’re just a bunch of backwoods, gun-toting Arkansans,” he said.
“But we’re not like that. We’re dedicated, educated professionals who are trying to protect their kids.”
Front Section, Pages 1 on 04/04/2013