Hamilton County Schools will not allow teachers or faculty to carry handguns, despite a recently passed Tennessee bill that would permit it under certain conditions.
“Given the ability of our community to provide armed personnel in every building, I will not recommend arming any other person in a Hamilton County school,” Superintendent Justin Robertson said in a statement.
In August, the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office announced its school resource program would be fully staffed for the first time in years.
The Sheriff’s Office works with the Hamilton County Department of Education to determine which schools have a school resource deputy. The Soddy-Daisy Police Department and East Ridge Police Department also provide school resource officers to either charter or traditional public schools in their jurisdictions. Other campuses are served by a school security officer, who is employed by the school district and serves in a similar capacity but is not legally authorized to make arrests.
This partnership ensures every campus has an appropriately equipped school resource deputy or school security officer and has been successful in district schools, the superintendent’s statement said.
The state legislation, which is now headed to Gov. Bill Lee’s desk, would allow some trained teachers and school staff to carry a gun without disclosing to parents or most other employees that they’re armed. A school district’s director of schools, the school principal and a local law enforcement agency would have to sign off on a faculty or staff member carrying a handgun or firearm.
Armed teachers would be required to have a handgun carry permit, undergo a background check, receive a mental health clearance and complete 40 hours of basic school policing training. The teachers would not be allowed to carry guns at school events in auditoriums or stadiums.
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On Tuesday, the House approved the bill 68-28 with four Republicans joining the Democrats in opposition. It passed the state Senate along party lines earlier this month.
“As a parent of public school kids — my kids are grown now — one of the biggest questions that people ask me all the time, they ask you, I’m certain, ‘Have you done everything you can possibly do to make our schools safe across the state?'” the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Ryan Williams, R-Cookeville, said. “I believe that this is a method by which we can do that because what you’re doing is you’re creating a deterrent.”
The legislation faced steep opposition from gun-reform advocates with protesters chanting “blood on your hands” after the bill passed the House. The protesters’ continued chants led House Speaker Cameron Sexton, R-Crossville, to order the galleries cleared, The Associated Press reported.
House Republicans rejected Democrats’ efforts to amend the bill, including ensuring parents are informed when someone is armed and having school districts assume civil liability for any injury, damage or death due to staff carrying guns.
“This is our reaction to teachers and children being murdered in a school,” Rep. Bo Mitchell, D-Nashville, said. “Our reaction is to throw more guns at it. What’s wrong with us? I mean, other states have reacted and done things. We are going in the total opposite reaction, the worst direction we possibly could go. We’re going to throw more guns at the situation. That is not going to solve the problem. It is going to create more death, and I am not fine with that.”
Nationally, around half of U.S. states allow teachers or other employees to carry guns on school property, though policies differ, according to the Giffords Law Center, a gun control advocacy group.
Contact Shannon Coan at scoan@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6396.