Teachers Carrying Concealed Guns on School Campuses? LFT Responds

A bill being discussed in the Louisiana Legislature, if passed, would allow some teachers and administrators to carry concealed guns in order to protect students and themselves in the event of a school shooting.

The Louisiana Federation of Teachers is sounding off about this piece of legislation. House Bill 37 was amended in the Louisiana Senate Committee on Revenue and Fiscal affairs to let some teachers and school administrators carry concealed.

The bill would allow for some teachers and administrators to be designated to carry.

Officials with the LFT have made clear that they do not support the amendments to this bill. One of the major points is that what if teachers are confronted with a current or former student, and they must then shoot that student. LFT officials say it's a role that teachers should never be forced to take on.

In the Facebook post, LFT officials contend,

This new law would put all of the responsibility and liability directly on to our teachers. Teachers would be expected to buy their own gun, obtain their own concealed carry firearm permit, complete a minimum of 400 hours of training on their own personal time and carry all the responsibility and liability if anything goes wrong.

Louisiana Federation of Teachers officials contends teachers are there to teach. They contend teachers have the right to expect the responsibility of protecting everyone in schools should be up to the public officials and security officers.

Each district would be able to assign people in schools as "school protection officers".

Here is one of the provisions in the bill that LFT disagrees with:

Proposed law requires school protection officers to maintain personal control of the firearm while that firearm is on school property and provides that failure to do so will subject the school protection officer to discipline

According to the proposed law, the position of School Protection Officer would be voluntary.

Whether or not the piece of legislation makes it through the process before the end of the session on Monday, June 6, remains to be seen. Also, the question of whether or not Governor John Bel Edwards would sign the legislation is also up in the air.