Superintendent Peter Stiepleman said the district won�t add carrying a gun to teachers� or principals� responsibilities.

Two rural Boone County school administrators � in the Southern Boone and Sturgeon districts � also said teachers won�t carry guns in their schools.

Last week, the Missouri General Assembly overrode Gov. Jay Nixon�s veto of a law that would allow school districts to designate teachers or administrators to have guns in school as school safety officers.

Stiepleman said school board members aren�t in favor of arming teachers. He said the board has discussed the matter several times.

�We�re not going to add that burden to our teachers,� Stiepleman said.

He pointed out an incident last week in Utah, when a teacher�s gun accidentally fired in a faculty bathroom at a school, shattering a toilet and injuring her. Utah allows anyone with a concealed weapons permit to carry a gun in public schools.

Current district policy in Columbia prohibits any employee from having a gun in a district building. School resource officers, who are police officers in the schools, do carry guns.

School board member Paul Cushing said he wants to revisit a policy to allows the district security director and his assistant, both of whom have police training, to carry guns.

Cushing said he didn�t think it was a good idea to give staff members guns. He said if that were to change, the staff members would need training beyond that required to receive a concealed-carry permit. He said the law has some merit in that it give local control to local school boards.

�What the law will do is allow us to set our own policy,� Cushing said. �That policy can restrict guns as much or as little as we decide.�

In June, the board narrowly voted down a policy that would have allowed the director of security and the assistant director to carry guns on campus.

Chris Felmlee, superintendent in the Southern Boone School District in Ashland, also said he didn�t think arming teachers was a good idea.

�I don�t feel my board is ready for staff members to carry weapons,� Felmlee said. �I would rather resources be put into funding additional school resource officers.�

He said the Boone County Sheriff�s Department provides Southern Boone a school resource officer who carries a gun. That agency also is very responsive when emergencies arise, he said.

A school district in a remote area of the state might have a desire to allow some staff members to carry guns, he said.

�I think every school community is different,� Felmlee said. �It�s truly a matter of what the local school community wants.�

Shawn Schultz, superintendent in the Sturgeon School District, said his district has an armed, full-time school resource officer who he thinks is the appropriate person to have a gun. He said the school district also has surveillance cameras and a system that locks doors for security. He said teachers also are trained to spot people and things that are out of place and report them.

He said he doesn�t think teachers should have guns.

�I don�t think they sign on for that level of responsibility,� Schultz said.

He said there hasn�t been any board discussion of the issue and none is scheduled.