Teachers union urges veto on funds to arm school staff

Florida’s teachers union on Thursday urged Gov. Rick Scott to veto funds for a program that would allow some public school employees to be armed on campus. The Florida Education Association wrote to the governor the day after the Legislature approved a gun-control and school-safety package that aims to improve school security in the wake of last month’s deadly shootings at a high school in Parkland.

The union’s letter did not suggest that Scott veto the bill but instead asked him to use his lineitem power to cut from the state budget funding for the “Coach Aaron Feis Guardian Program.” That program would allow some school employees, with training, to be carry guns on campus. That section of the bill (HB 7026) was one of the most controversial and has prompted lots of debate.

Scott has said he was not interested in arming teachers. Spokesman John Tupps said Thursday the governor was reviewing the bill and planned to meet with the families of the victims at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High before deciding whether to sign it.

The bill excludes from the guardian program those who “exclusively perform classroom duties.” But the union said it would still allow more than 200,000 school employees to carry guns in Florida’s public schools as many people teach and take on other duties, such as coaching.

“We urge you to honor your instincts and act to keep additional firearms from our schools unless they are in the hands of trained law enforcement personnel,” the letter read. “The provision that would arm school employees will do more harm than good.”

The program is named for a coach at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School who was among the 17 people killed Feb. 14 when a former student attacked the school. The program would be voluntary, if a local sheriff’s department wanted to establish it.

School staff tapped as “guardians” would have no law enforcement powers but to “prevent or abate an active assailant” on campus, the legislation says.