Bainbridge Island educators are opposed to the idea of arming teachers with guns.
The Bainbridge Island School Board has unanimously adopted a resolution that says it will not allow teachers to be armed, and it also offers strong support for “sensible gun safety legislation to protect students and staff,” including enhanced background checks for gun purchasers, the elimination of private gun sale loopholes, and raising the age to purchase assault weapons to 21.
The resolution, proposed by District Superintendent Peter Bang-Knudsen, was adopted at the school board’s last meeting, where it received the support of the entire board.
“I think teachers are there to teach; that’s where their specific training is,” said Board President Sheila Jakubik. “They have not been spent years and years on how to fire a firearm.”
President Trump has been pushing the idea to arm teachers, a notion originally proposed by the National Rifle Association, since the mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida last month that killed 17 students and staff.
Jakubik said the resolution was part of the school district’s two-pronged plan on increasing student safety.
The first part, Jakubik said, is to concentrate resources on the social and emotional learning of students. The second is creating a safe environment for children.
Jakubik noted the formation of a task force by the district superintendent to look at school safety, and added that stationing a school resource officer — a uniformed member of the Bainbridge Island Police Department — on district property is worthy of a new look.
While the suggestion of putting an officer at Bainbridge High was opposed by parents and other community members in past years, it’s time to revisit the topic, Jakubik said.
“Definitely, the resource officer is on the table,” she said.
The resolution adopted by the school board voices strong opposition to arming teachers with guns, calling it a “misguided suggestion.”
It also says that “gun violence presents a clear and present danger to the students, parents and staff of the Bainbridge Island School District,” and notes that the school district’s policies already ban weapons and firearms on school grounds.
The resolution recounts that there have been six school shootings in Washington state since 2014, which have killed five and injured seven people, and that approximately 150,000 students in 170 schools across the country have experienced a shooting on campus since the Columbine High School massacre in 1999.
“It is the belief of the board of directors that Bainbridge Island School District and Washington state must be national leaders in innovative and meaningful policy to confront gun violence,” the resolution continues, and it advocates the passage of legislation that would include:
• raising the age to purchase assault weapons to 21;
• implementing enhanced background checks for assault weapons;
• establishing safety programs in schools that do not include arming educators or staff;
• eliminating private gun sale loopholes;
• providing funding for thorough gun violence research, including removing the prohibition on research and data collection by the U.S. Center for Disease Control (CDC); and
• increased funding for programs and school staffing (i.e. counselors, nurses, and psychologists) that support student mental health, social and emotional learning, and anti-bullying.
In a statement, Bang-Knudsen said the resolution was a way for the Bainbridge Island School District to share its view on school safety with state and national leaders.
“While it’s not my job to write legislation, it is my job to advocate for our schools,” Bang-Knudsen wrote in a message to parents and the community. “I am now in the process of sharing the document with state and federal officials so they will know where Bainbridge Island School District stands when it comes to providing safe school environments.”
The resolution acknowledges the impact that students have made in focusing attention on sensible gun laws in the wake of the Parkland, Florida shooting.
Students at Bainbridge High joined a massive walkout last week during a nationwide day of protests centered on school security, and more than 600 BHS students took part in the 17-minute-long demonstration.
Student leaders are also organizing a National March for Our Lives that will be held on Saturday, March 24. Seattle’s march will start at Cal Anderson Park at 10 a.m. Saturday and end with a rally at KeyArena.
