EDUCATION

Superintendent Diane Douglas: Arizona teachers can already carry guns in school

Ricardo Cano
The Republic | azcentral.com
Lindsey Paull, a first grade teacher in Burlington Schools, has taken a stand against arming teachers and says there's other ways to stem school violence.

The White House on Sunday proposed providing "rigorous firearm training" to "qualified" school personnel, furthering the polarizing national debate over whether teachers should be allowed to carry guns in school.

In Florida, the site of last month's high-school massacre that left 17 dead, Gov. Rick Scott signed into law a set of new gun restrictions that allow some teachers and staff to carry guns on campus

But Arizona may be ahead of this curve.

Here, teachers can already carry guns in school — with permission, according to the state's top education administrator. 

What state law says about guns on campus

Diane Douglas, Arizona superintendent of public instruction, said in a Feb. 28 interview on the Bill Buckmaster radio show that state statutes essentially already allow local school boards to give school employees permission to carry guns on a public district or charter school campus.

The Arizona School Boards Association, however, believes otherwise. 

READ MORE:Trump suggested arming teachers. That's not a new idea in Arizona

ASBA said it hasn't heard of any Arizona school districts ever having used the provision in state statute that Douglas was addressing to authorize teachers to carry guns at school.

The specific law Douglas referenced, Arizona Revised Statute 15-341 A23, states the governing board shall "prescribe and enforce policies and procedures that prohibit a person from carrying or possessing a weapon on school grounds unless the person is a peace officer or has obtained specific authorization from the school administrator." 

RELATED:Should Tasers be allowed on Arizona college campuses? Bill to permit stun guns advances

When asked on the radio show whether teachers with gun training should be allowed to carry firearms in school, Douglas said research by the Arizona Department of Education found “that’s an issue that we’ve already addressed in state statute." 

Under that interpretation of the law, Douglas said schools and school boards "could look at people who have had (firearm) training."

"We have teachers on our campuses who are former military," Douglas said in the interview. "I would never, ever, ever ask a teacher who is not comfortable in that position to just take training and try to fit them into that position. But we need to look at all the resources that are available to us, in my opinion."

Douglas said later in the segment that "it needs to be very specific authorization. This isn’t something we can take for granted or take very lightly."

School boards have a different opinion

Heidi Vega, spokeswoman for the Arizona School Boards Association, said in an email that "ASBA definitely has a different interpretation of the statute."

"The language was clearly taken out of context when referring to teachers and guns on campus," Vega said.

RELATED: What are rules on guns at Arizona's universities?

Vega said the language regarding the Arizona statute was not drafted with teachers in mind but, rather, parents.

She included examples of who they believe the limited statute would apply to, including parents who are police officers who are entering a campus to pick up their kids from school, attending a tour or speaking to a class as a guest.

Douglas in a February forum for state schools superintendent candidates called for securing school entrances and funding more school resource officers to address student safety in schools.

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