Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2013 • LHS board to discuss campus safety measures, allowing armed teachers

Publisher’s note: This story originally appeared in the Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2013 edition of the Lassen County Times.

Local schools are working with law enforcement agencies in lockdown drills and educating staff and students how to handle a shooting or intruder situation.

But one board member wants to take it one step further by exploring the possibility of allowing interested teachers to carry concealed weapons on campus.

In response to the recent shooting at Sparks Middle School, board member Dr. Hal Meadows requested the issue be placed on the Lassen Union High School District Board of Trustees Dec. 10 agenda.

Other items to also be considered will be equipping teachers with Hardwire Bulletproof Whiteboard ® Shields, which can stop a bullet, and providing easy-to-use pieces of SWAT style armor that can be added to strategic locations around campus.

Meadows said he would like the board to do all three things.

On Oct. 21, seventh-grader Jose Reyes shot and killed math teacher Mike Landsberry at Sparks Middle School, and wounded two students.

Meadows cited the 1999 incident at Columbine High School, the 2012 mass shooting at a theater in Aurora, Colorado and the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, which left 26 people dead including first-grade students in the Connecticut town almost one year ago.

“But Sparks was us,” Meadows said. “We go down there, we feel like that’s home almost. And the lockdowns that we’re doing are good, we have to do something, but I have to tell you that these walls will not stop even a pistol round. So, we can lock behind doors and we can lock behind sheet rock walls and we can still be shot right through that wall.”

Just prior to his request to agendize the items, LHS Principal Robbin Pedrett discussed school safety and the fact staff had partnered with the Susanville Police Department in working on lockdowns.

Meadows cited the gun-free zone law but mentioned language he believed allowed concealed weapon carries. Per Education code 626.9 (a), the Gun Free School Zone Act of 1995, does provide certain language allowing the superintendent or his or her designee to provide written permission for a person to carry a firearm in a school zone.

“I think personally, in our gun-free zones across this country, especially here because this is home, that if people know …  this is not a place they can come and inflict harm on innocent people, they’re going to be dissuaded from doing that,” Meadows said. “And I think that’s just a philosophical thing for me, and I know a lot of people won’t agree with that. The answer of getting rid of guns is not going to work as far as I can tell,” Meadows said.

Lassen County Sheriff Dean Growdon said school representatives have contacted him and he would be meeting with them, as well as researching the legalities of concealed weapon permit holders being allowed to have firearms on campus. However, the concealed weapons permit issued by the sheriff’s office does not allow guns on campus.

Ag teacher Liz Ammon said she was a huge proponent of teachers being able to carry concealed weapons to protect their students. She also mentioned free trainings are available where educators learn hand-to-hand combat and other strategies to protect classrooms from an intruder.

Meadows said he did have a personal bias about female teachers carrying a firearm in their purse because that person wouldn’t be able to access it as quickly.

Ammon said people can carry them on their body, but there are also gun cases that can only be opened by reading a person’s handprint.

Whiteboard shields
The whiteboard shields are 18 by 20 inches in size, weigh less than four pounds and are useable in the classroom, but also provide non-lethal defense to protect against an intruder or active shooters.

Meadows’ son and high school math teacher Jason Meadows purchased one for $300.

Jason Meadows explained he learned about the shield after the Sandy Hook shootings, but decided to buy one after the Sparks incident.

After the Sandy Hook shootings, reports emerged the principal and another staff member tried to stop the shooter, Adam Lanza, before they were killed. It was also reported Landsberry may have started walking toward Reyes before he was shot, allowing students to escape in Sparks.

“They went after that shooter because that was their instinct,” Meadows said. “The math teacher in Sparks followed his instincts and went after that shooter because he wasn’t going to have his kids shot …”

Meadows said, “It gives some of our people a helmet of protection and perhaps a chance to defend themselves.”