SB7030 and HB7093 represent among the worst ideas ever – arming teachers who will be expected to possibly turn a gun toward one of their own students. Right now, SB 7030/Arming Teachers is on its way to a full senate floor vote. Backed by the NRA, this legislation is school safety on the cheap.
It costs about $100K to put a sworn school resource officer into a school. These are people who have thousands of hours ongoing training and work as law enforcement professionals. Instead, these bills make a “Guardian” out of a full-time classroom teacher to take a three week training course with only eight hours of active shooter drills and a one-time $500 dollar stipend. This is all that’s required for the state to deem a teacher ready to carry a concealed weapon on campus and into the classroom.
Take Action, call, write, and tweet your senator and representative today. Tell them to vote NO on SB7030 and HB7093
Here’s why arming teachers is bad for public education:
- Overwhelmingly opposed by parents and teachers
- Harms the teacher/student relationship forcing public school classroom teachers to live every day knowing that they or their colleagues must pivot from teaching the students they love to possibly shooting one of them
- Teacher Guardian training is a one time event, no continuing training similar to what is required of police officers
- Zero evidence that arming classroom teachers as described in SB 7030/HB 7093 is insurable, creating massive liability costs
- Fellow teachers, students and parents have no voice over whether armed teachers are present in their school
- Legislators have betrayed the 2018 bi-partisan agreement to keep guns out of the hands of teachers
Don’t like the idea of arming teachers? Call and write your senator and representative today – Vote NO on SB7030 and HB7093
