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The Senate Education Committee passed a bill on Wednesday that would allow school districts the option of permitting employees trained in handling and using firearms to possess them on school premises to provide an additional layer of school safety but the proposal is drawing opposition from a variety of groups.

(File photo/PennLive.com)

After putting in place a rash of laws over the past two decades to stem the tide of school violence and keep guns out of educational settings, a state lawmaker now wants to reverse course.

He wants to give school districts the option of allowing their teachers, principals and other school employees to possess firearms on school premises.

Sen. Don White, R-Indiana County, said his bill would clarify existing law that bans weapons on school property to say specifically that school employees trained in the use of a firearms are permitted to be armed on campus.

"Teachers have come to me and said I want the opportunity to defend my children and to defend my life and give me something more powerful than an eraser to throw at these people," White told the Senate Education Committee on Wednesday.

The committee voted 9-3 to allow the bill to be positioned for eventual consideration by the full Senate.

But even if it gets through the Senate and the House, its chances of winning Gov. Tom Wolf's signature are slim to none.

"School personnel shouldn't be told that the only help they will get from Harrisburg to make schools safer is the option to carry a loaded gun around their students," said Wolf spokesman J.J. Abbott.

"Harrisburg can help schools be safer by giving them adequate funding so schools can hire trained security professionals like school resource or police officers should school professionals feel they need it, and counselors and support staff for students."

The bill also is drawing strong opposition from the Pennsylvania State Education Association, the Education Law Center, CeaseFirePA and Moms Demand Action, among others. They see the proposal as one that would make schools more dangerous.

Shira Goodman, executive director of CeaseFirePA, considered it shameful that the committee would take up the bill just three days after the 10th anniversary of the mass shooting on Virginia Tech's campus. Moreover, she said the bill's failure to address safe storage of guns that it would permit in schools and specify in detail the training that a school employee would be required to take are among the reasons it should not advance any further.

The bill requires school employees who agree to carry a firearm at school to possess a concealed carry permit, which requires no training to obtain, she said. Additionally, employees would have to complete training that is designed for law enforcement personnel, which she questions whether a non-law enforcement person could access, or a course certified by the state police commissioner, of which there are none at this point.

"I don't think most people, especially a teacher who has too many kids in their class, who has to deal with kids, who loves those kids is the person we should be putting an additional burden on," Goodman said.

Sen. Anthony Williams, D-Philadelphia - who along with Democratic Sens. Andy Dinniman of Chester County and Daylin Leach of Montgomery County cast the dissenting votes - was unsuccessful in his attempt to have the committee hold off action on the bill until after a hearing was held on it.

Sen. Mike Folmer, R-Lebanon County, said the proposal was the subject of an education committee hearing in 2014 and pointed out the proposed legislation would not impose a mandate on school districts but rather give school boards local say over whether to allow their employees to be armed.

Sen. Ryan Aument, R-Lancaster County, one of three new members on the committee who didn't attend the 2014 hearing, said that "may" provision on whether school boards allow it is the reason why he could support the legislation.

"This bill would allow for conversations to take place at the local school district level where I think those conversations ought to take place," he said. "We're essentially reaffirming local control."

Freshman Sen. John DiSanto, R-Dauphin County, said he too felt that "it's a tool that we should provide to school districts to figure out at the local level. I just want to say it's a sad commentary on our society in general that we have to be discussing this but I believe it's very important."

Northern Lebanon School District Superintendent Don Bell stands among those who sees this legislation as a way to provide an extra layer of security for students and staff provided the local school board decides it is needed.

"The threats are many and have increased over the years to included shootings and more intensified attacks on our children in schools. We have been able to take steps that provide armed troopers or school police in the recent past but that may not be enough," Bell said.

White said it was the school stabbing incident at Franklin Regional High School in 2014 where a student armed with two kitchen knives stabbed and injured 21 people that spurred his interest in allowing school employees who receive training to be armed at school. He pointed out in rural areas, it can take 35 to 45 minutes for police to respond to a school incident.

"Out of the 500 school districts if this were instituted maybe none would choose [to allow it} ... but maybe there are few that would," he said. "I think it is another tool we should give to our school administrators and teachers to consider. That's all I ask."

Mary Ann Nord of Lehigh County, a representative of Moms Demand Action, though, said the proof is lacking that such a measure makes students or staff safer. She would rather see gun control laws strengthened and better safe gun storage requirements.

She also voiced concern about the legislation's potential for increasing cost a school district may incur for liability insurance as has become an issue in Kansas. And Nord said having witnessed a shooting on a Florida street she knows how chaotic a shooting scene can be and fears that it could make law enforcement's response to a school shooting incident more complicated.

Jerry Oleksiak, president of the Pennsylvania State Education Association, agreed.

"PSEA is not opposed to the use of appropriately trained and armed school safety personnel in schools, like the school safety officers that some districts employ. What our association does oppose is arming teachers, education support professionals, and other school staff," he said in a statement. "PSEA is for strategies that keep students safe. This bill doesn't keep students safe. That's why we oppose it."