Arming school staff? Kansas proposal puts focus on liability

TOPEKA, Kan. — Kansas schools that refuse to allow teachers to carry guns could be held legally responsible in the event of a tragedy under a proposal drafted after last month’s mass shooting at a Florida high school.

Opponents of the measure, which got its first hearing Tuesday in front of the House Insurance Committee, expressed concern it could effectively mandate arming teachers rather than allowing it, as several states have done.

“It would certainly open the door for that conversation,” said Democratic Rep. Brett Parker, an Overland Park school teacher. “The further we go down this rabbit hole, the more chance there is for even more obnoxious legislation moving forward.”

Even if that provision is stripped, as some advocates suggested during the hearing, the bill would prohibit insurers from denying coverage to a school because it lets its teachers or staff members carry weapons.

At least nine other states have provisions giving teachers the option of carrying guns in schools, but the Kansas plan seems to go further than most other laws in place.

The proposal is separate from one embraced by Republican leaders in the House that focuses on improving school infrastructure instead of arming staff. That measure, which appears to have broader support, won first-round approval on Tuesday.

Rep. Blake Carpenter, a conservative Derby Republican who helped write the legislation that holds schools liable, said he is confident armed and trained teachers will save lives. Police could be minutes away, and in smaller districts where modest funding means schoolresource officers aren’t hired, the bill would allow for “next best thing,” he told the committee.

“It is not, if our kids will be killed. It is, when will they be killed and what are we doing to prevent it?” Carpenter said.