State schools Superintendent Ryan Walters requested that $500,000 in the department’s upcoming budget be directed toward a pilot program to train public school district personnel to carry concealed firearms.
Walters said during the Oklahoma State Board of Education meeting Thursday some school districts already have policies allowing trained staff members to carry concealed firearms. Few people in the district know which school personnel carry a gun on campus, he added, like administrators and board members.
Oklahoma law allows any school’s board of education to designate trained school personnel to obtain and use an armed security guard license along with their employment as school personnel. The law also provides trained personnel immunity from civil and criminal liability for any injury resulting from carrying a handgun a public school campus.
The state board of education’s request for $500,000 wouldn’t change a district’s ability to enact its own policy regarding trained personnel carrying on campus, Walters said. It’d provide funding to districts that want additional trained staff members.