Salem-Keizer board further considers ban on concealed guns at schools

The Salem-Keizer school board is still deciding whether to prohibit weapons, including concealed handguns, from district property at all times. After the first reading this week of a resolution that would do just that, board members remain distinctly split on the issue.

The Salem-Keizer Public Schools governing board held its first in-person meeting in months at Miller Elementary School in Salem on Tuesday. About 40 people sat in attendance in the school gymnasium, while others tuned in virtually.

Board members read a newly proposed resolution that would outright "prohibit weapons, including concealed weapons, in Salem-Keizer schools and direct the superintendent to develop and enact administrative policy to achieve this."

This topic was first discussed by the board in a work session on June 28.

About a dozen people gave testimony during public comment this week, though not all were about the concealed weapons resolution.

When it comes to banning guns, it seems both sides feel their stance will better keep children and staff safe.

A couple testifiers claimed the ban would not make them safer and argued any decision to pass the resolution would be made from feelings, not facts.

"First, you have to go through a background check to get your gun and then you have to go through a background check to get your concealed carry. You also have to take a safety course," said Jordan Ohrt of Stayton, who later said she does not have children in the district.

"Taking away the ability for someone to protect oneself," she said, "taking away that ability from a law-abiding mother, like myself, isn't really going to make anyone else safe."

However, some pleaded for board members to pass it.

Nan Baker-Krofft, a parent of a Salem-Keizer graduate and a teacher herself, spoke as a member of Moms Demand Action, a group dedicated to ending gun violence.

Baker-Krofft said she's met Kipland Kinkel, who murdered his parents before killing two of his classmates and wounding 25 others at Thurston High School in Springfield in the late 1990s. She was taking classes at Umpqua Community College in 2015 when the mass shooting occurred. And she was teaching at a middle school when they went into lockdown because of a shooting at North Thurston High School.

"I was 100 feet from a shooter," she said to the board Tuesday night. "You can't understand what it's really like if you have not been there.

"If we don't take advantage of this, we're putting a gun in the hands of someone that might take our children," she continued. "Please, please, think seriously. ... I beg of you."

Why is this conversation taking place?

Oregon lawmakers last year passed Senate Bill 554, which expanded the list of locations where concealed handguns are prohibited. The law gives every public school district statewide the option to ban guns from their premises but requires districts that chose to do so formally notify the community with signs on all district buildings.

The majority of Oregon's 197 school districts have not opted in. However, a couple dozen have, including Klamath Falls, Myrtle Point, Tillamook, Pendleton, Tigard-Tualatin, Lake Oswego and Woodburn.

Salem-Keizer's board discussion last month came just weeks after the Uvalde, Texas, school shooting that left 19 elementary school children and two teachers dead, and days after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a New York law requiring state residents to have "proper cause" to carry a handgun.

For nearly two years, there have been tense community debates about Salem-Keizer school resource officers. Though SRO contracts were ended, law enforcement still responds in emergencies and there are district-employed security specialists in the schools. Security specialists are not armed, and they do not handle discipline in terms of referrals to the police.

Staff members and visitors are already prohibited from carrying concealed weapons in Salem-Keizer schools. Any change at the district level would expand those restrictions.

Tuesday's discussion was a first reading of the proposed resolution. It can be voted on at the second reading, which is likely happening next month. No amendments have been offered publicly at this time.

Where do the board members stand?

Newly elected chairwoman Ashley Carson Cottingham, co-vice chairwomen María Hinojos Pressey and Karina Guzmán Ortiz, and member Osvaldo Avila support the resolution. Members Danielle Bethell, Satya Chandragiri and Marty Heyen oppose it.

With a 4-3 majority, it's likely to pass.

Bethell spoke against the resolution Tuesday, saying she is a concealed carry holder herself. She argued the resolution would be hard to regulate and said the idea is "extremely offensive for people who go through the processes" of becoming licensed handlers.

Heyen argued the board was "poking the wrong bear," adding if the board is trying to do something to prevent shootings, "concealed weapon holders are not the problem."

In June, she expanded on her opposition.

"When a mom picks up her kids from school, when she's in the parking lot after a football game, who protects her? Who protects her from Antifa before or after a board meeting? No one," she said then. "But she can choose if she wants to get a CHL and protect herself and protect her children."

Student advisor to the board Raylin Brennan spoke in favor of the resolution, arguing, in part, that this would be a proactive move to avoid shootings, whether the district has had issues with concealed weapons holders or not.

"Schools should be a place where guns should not be," Brennan said. "Students imagine what would happen if there was a mass shooting and what we would do."

Brennan said students in Salem are feeling the trauma following the Uvlade shooting. "It’s really scary for us to think about 'What if that were us?' 'What if that was me?' "

Carson Cottingham in June said that a weapons-free school policy seems straightforward, stating many mass shootings have occurred where civilian guns were allowed or where there was armed security or law enforcement present.

"If this policy of having a weapons-free environment for public schools where children are every day can prevent one death or one injury, it's worth it to me," Carson Cottingham said.

The school board has work sessions scheduled for July 19 and July 26 but has not yet been determined when the resolution will be further discussed. It's expected to be on the agenda next month, Carson Cottingham told the Statesman Journal. Members of the public could offer additional comments at that time.

The next regular business meeting is scheduled for Aug. 9. For more information, go to salkeiz.k12.or.us/schoolboard.

Concealed Weapons Resolution by Statesman Journal on Scribd

Contact Statesman Journal education reporter Natalie Pate at npate@statesmanjournal.com, 503-399-6745, Twitter @NataliePateGwin, or Facebook at Facebook.com/nataliepatejournalist.

This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: Salem-Keizer board further considers ban on concealed guns at schools