A law allowing teachers to carry firearms at school will be discussed locally.
“The way the law is written the director of schools and the sheriff would have to sign an agreement to allow them to do that,” Roane County Director of Schools Russell K. Jenkins said.
Jenkins said the Board of Education’s Safety Committee was planning to meet with members of the Roane County Sheriff’s office today, Wednesday, to discuss the law.
“At this time we don’t have plans to allow that,” Jenkins said.
Senate Bill 1325/House Bill 1202 was passed by the Tennessee General Assembly during this year’s session.
“As introduced, authorizes a faculty or staff member of a school to carry a concealed handgun on school grounds subject to certain conditions, including obtaining an enhanced handgun carry permit and completing annual training,” a summary of the bill states.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed the bill into law on April 26.
The Roane County Sheriff’s Office has 13 school resource officers that work at different schools around the county. Its position on the teacher carry law hadn’t been decided, according to Chief Deputy Tim Hawn.
“We have not taken a stance yet,” Hawn said.
The law doesn’t require school systems to arm their teachers, but the option to do so is there provided certain requirements are met.
“They are not allowed to without written permission,” Jenkins said. “They have to have 40 hours of in-service training and they also have to have a psychological assessment done in the counties that do allow it, but right now our county has not made a decision on that.”
Jenkins discussed what could transpire going forward.
“What will likely happen, our safety committee will meet with the sheriff and have discussion on it and they’ll probably make a recommendation to the full board, whether to allow teachers to carry or not,” Jenkins said.
Today’s safety committee meeting is scheduled for 5 p.m. at the Edward E. Williams Building located at 105 Bluff Road, Kingston.
Roane County Board of Education Member Danny Wright has been in law enforcement for 42 years. He said he doesn’t want armed teachers in Roane County Schools.
“In my line of work I’m not for anyone being armed in school except law enforcement,” Wright said.
Too many things could go wrong, according to Wright, even with the enhanced training teachers would need to have in order to carry at school.
“There’s just too many variables that non law enforcement personnel are not trained for even with the 40 hour enhanced training,” Wright said. “There’s just too many variables that could get out of control and I’m not for it.”
