Worland couple requests arming school staff

WORLAND — Worland parent Sarah Lungren, speaking on behalf of herself and her husband Clint, read a letter to the Washakie County School District No. 1 Board of Trustees requesting that they consider arming at least one staff member at each school.

In the letter to the Worland school board, the Lungrens state, “In light of the recent school shootings in Florida and Maryland we are extremely concerned about the safety of our children while they are in school. We would like the school board trustees to look at all the school shootings and make a bold change, to take a stance against these shootings and actively protect our children and our staff. Worland seems far removed from the problems of big cities (school shootings, school walk-outs, etc.) but it is only a matter of time before we see some of the violence and hate we see in the news every day. We desperately want and need to have our children safe and protected.”

The letter mentions the recent Maryland school shooting in which an armed officer confronted the shooter where two students were injured. One later died.

According to the Associated Press, the student who fatally shot a female classmate last week at a Maryland high school died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound during a confrontation with a school resource officer who also fired his gun, authorities said Monday. The St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement that the 17-year-old shooter fired a fatal shot to his head just as he encountered sheriff’s deputy Blaine Gaskill. The shot fired by Gaskill struck the gun in the school shooter’s hand, the sheriff’s office added. The shooting occurred last Tuesday at Great Mills High School. Jaelynn Willey, 16, died two days later after being taken off life support.

In the letter to the Washakie County School District No. 1 Board, the Lungrens ask the board to “strongly consider having at least one armed staff member at each school at all times. The staff member would be trained and/or qualified to shoot a gun in an active shooting or emergency situation. We need the ability to have our children protected at all times in our schools. We send our children to school every day thinking the schools are able to protect them and take care of them. This sadly isn’t the situation anymore. We have many in society today that do not value human life and attack us where we are most vulnerable, our children. Please consider this seriously, there are too many horrific incidences in our society today where an armed person enters a building and we have no means of protecting our children and staff without the ability to fight back.”

Sarah Lungren said, after reading the letter to the board, that she had the opportunity to talk with each principal and Superintendent Dave Nicholas prior to the board meeting. She also talked to some staff members.

She said the staff members understand if and when an incident happens that they will stand up and confront the shooter “knowing that they will most likely lose their life.”

She added, “That’s a horrific thing to say. We want you to protect our children. We ask you to protect our children and yet you have zero means to fight back so why even put your life on the line.”

“But, we have awesome teachers, awesome staff members who are willing to put their life on the line. If there’s a step we can take in a different direction to give them the means to actually protect them in that instance I think all the better. I just strongly encourage you to take that into consideration,” Lungren said.

The board, per policy, does not make comments or address visitor comments about items not on the agenda.

Washakie County School District No. 1, with a high school, middle school and three elementary schools, does have one school resource officer, a Washakie County Sheriff’s deputy.

THE LAW

The 2017 Wyoming Legislature passed a law that allows staff members to be armed if a district so chooses.

According to the law, “The board of trustees in each school district may adopt rules and regulations, in consultation with local law enforcement, to allow the possession of firearms by employees possessing a valid concealed carry permit under W.S. 6-8-104 on or in any property or facility owned or leased by the school district.”

Rules outlined by state statute include the district developing an application and approval process of the employees to be armed, requiring the employee to have the firearm on his/her person at all times or in a lock box; establish ongoing training requirements and initial training requirements.

In an interview following the passage of the 2017 legislation, Superintendent David Nicholas said that he can understand the need for such a law for outlying school districts, but feels that the Worland schools, at this time, do not need armed personnel. “Our coverage is really good in Worland. We have worked with our police and sheriff departments, they make it a habit to walk through our schools daily unannounced and in addition to that we have a school resource officer that is at the high school and middle school. In addition to that just the response time from law enforcement to us is really quick,” he said in 2017.

The Ten Sleep school board voted 4-1 earlier this month to proceed with developing a policy to allow armed staff members at the school. Washakie County Sheriff Steve Rakness has told the Ten Sleep board that response time could be as much as 20 minutes.

In the Big Horn Basin, Cody is advancing a policy, Powell is considering a policy, as is Greybull. Other districts looking into the issue in the state include Lander and Gillette with Evanston was the first district to pass a policy.