Guns in schools local issue, state PTA leader tells panel
The president-elect of the Arkansas PTA told the state’s School Safety Commission on Thursday that her child advocacy organization has reservations about armed adults on school campuses but respects the decisions of local communities on the matter.
“National PTA believes the most effective day-to-day school climate to be gun-free, but defers to local collaborative decision-making to allow for the presence of law enforcement deployed in community-oriented policing,” Melinda Kinnison of North Little Rock told the commission, quoting from the national organization’s position paper.
Kinnison was the sole presenter at Thursday’s meeting of the commission that was appointed by Gov. Asa Hutchinson in March in the wake of the Feb. 14 shooting deaths of 17 people by an intruder at a Parkland, Fla., high school.
The state commission — comprised of educators, law enforcement personnel and mental-health professionals, and chaired by Cheryl May, director of the University of Arkansas’ Criminal Justice Institute — submitted preliminary information and recommendations about four weeks ago on measures to enhance student and staff safety at schools.
The preliminary report states that no campus should ever be without an armed presence when staff members and children are present, and it provides a menu of options for providing that security, including the use of school resource officers — police assigned to a school — and commissioned school security officers who can be district teachers, administrators and support staff who have volunteered and undergone training to have a gun on a campus.
Kinnison told the commission that the Arkansas PTA adheres to and honors the principle of local control.
“We do however have a concern when it comes to educational and administrative staff being in an armed security position,” she said. State data show that students who are members of minority racial and ethnic groups are disciplined at a disproportionately higher rate than their peers, she also said.
“Whether it is a racial, social, cultural or other type of bias, it does exist and arming those that have that bias is concerning not only for the students and their families but also for the armed employees at the school.”
Kinnison urged that parents be allowed to the degree possible to participate in decision-making about security. That will foster greater understanding and compliance from the community, she said, adding that stakeholders should be allowed to publicly review and comment on campus security proposals — before they are adopted and carried out.
A final report to Hutchinson is due in November. To that end, the commission and its subcommittees will continue to hear presentations on matters related to school safety. Commission members said Thursday that students should be among those urged to present to the commission.
The commission also intends to visit schools — including private schools and public charter schools — in the coming weeks and months and to ask school district superintendents about their use and interest in components of school safety plans.