Iowa Senate approves bill on arming school staff, providing immunity to districts

The Iowa Senate approved a bill Wednesday that would create a permitting system for Iowa school employees wanting to carry firearms on school grounds.

House File 2586, approved on a 30-14 vote, would allow school employees who meet training requirements to receive a permit through the Iowa Department of Public Safety for carrying a firearm on school grounds.

Qualified immunity from criminal and civil liability for damages “pursuant to the application of reasonable force” would be provided to school districts and employees in cases involving firearm usage by school personnel. The measure was added as a provision to address concerns raised by Spirit Lake Community School District and other districts that have tried to implement policies allowing school staff to carry firearms under current law but were denied liability insurance coverage.

The Senate removed a provision creating a School Security Personnel Grant through the Department of Education that would have provided schools with up to $50,000 in matching funds to put toward hiring police or security officers for schools.

The bill’s floor manager, Sen. Lynn Evans, R-Aurelia, said the legislation would give Iowa school districts the ability to consider armed school staff as a measure to ensure students’ safety.

“I get a pit my stomach just thinking about, talking about this issue,” Evans said. “But as a former school administrator, if I didn’t have every option available to me on the table to protect those kids, I would be remiss in not exploring each and every one of those options. And I think that’s what parents in this state would want, that we are exploring each and every option at the school board table to protect our most valuable resource: our children.”

The legislation comes in the wake of the Jan. 4 shooting at Perry High School, where a 17-year-old student killed one student and injured three staff members and four students. The Perry High School principal, Dan Marburger, died of injuries sustained in the shooting.

Republicans speaking in favor of the bill said it’s necessary — especially in rural school districts — to ensure that shooters can be eliminated as quickly as possible to save lives. Sen. Jason Schultz, R-Schleswig, said arming school staff is the best way to ensure the safety of students in these incidents.

“It just simply comes down to seconds are the most valuable thing on the planet in that situation,” Schultz said. “And anything you can do to remove the number of seconds before somebody with a weapon faces a murderer with a weapon, you’re going to have a lower body count. … A good guy with a gun is going to stop a bad guy with a gun. Not every single time, but you don’t have a chance if the good guy doesn’t have a gun.”

But Democrats argued that the measure will make school less safe for Iowa students and staff. Sen. Molly Donahue, D-Cedar Rapids, said there are multiple steps the state can take to ensure school safety by being “proactive instead of reactive,” such as funding mental health support for students, emergency situation training for teachers and creating threat assessment teams — in addition to passing gun safety measures on issues like firearm storage and universal background checks.

Donahue said the legislation will not help teachers or students in realistically handling a school shooting incident.

“As a teacher, I know what this training is for us, working with students: we have 30 seconds — approximately, if you’re lucky — to figure out if you’re going to run, hide or fight, and you’ve got a room full of kids,” Donahue said. “That leaves very little time for somebody who might be carrying a gun to help protect the school to run out and do that. But while they do that, I also need to remind you that they’re leaving children in the classroom, who are traumatized who are scared and they now have no supervision and nobody to help them through what they’re doing.”

The bill returns to the House for consideration before heading to Gov. Kim Reynolds for final approval.