Nicosia, union call arming teachers a bad idea

School District 6 superintendent Michael Nicosia said last week that he doesn’t support the idea of arming teachers or other school officials.

The idea was recently endorsed by Rep. Jerry O’Neil, R-Columbia Falls, and Sen. Dee Brown, R-Coram. But Nicosia, who has a concealed weapons permit, said he simply doesn’t see a program where arming teachers would be safe.

“It’s hard to picture a program that would be safe if there was a situation (at a school),” Nicosia said.

Arming teachers could simply multiply the number of possibilities for things to go wrong, he said.

“We could mistakenly create chaos,” he noted.

He was, however, comfortable with police in schools if need be. School District 6 already has a school resource officer — a trained member of the Columbia Falls City Police. Todd Mertz spends most of his time at the high school, but he goes to other schools when needed. Mertz does more than simply patrol the grounds and provide protection, Nicosia noted — he builds relationships between staff, the student body, law enforcement and the community.

“I think he’s invaluable,” Nicosia said.

State teachers union president Eric Feaver said the union is against arming teachers, even with pepper spray and Tasers.

“We don’t in any way support weapons in schools,” Feaver said. “It’s hare-brained, and we’re not going to do it … having teachers armed isn’t going to make schools more safe. If anything, it will make them more dangerous.”

Nicosia said the best way to make schools safer is with trained police officers. The district has already taken steps to make sure buildings are more secure. All entrances other than the front entrance are now locked, and the district is exploring the idea of remote locking systems for the front doors and more security cameras at entrances.

But the reality is there is only so much the district can do — school buildings have hundreds of windows. In the case of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, the shooter shot out the security windows on the front door to get inside.

The talk of arming teachers goes contrary to federal law anyway — only trained law enforcement are allowed to have weapons in schools under the Gun-Free Schools Zone Act of 1990.

Both Brown and O’Neil represent Columbia Falls, and Brown is a former Canyon Elementary School teacher. Neither has introduced a bill that would actually broach the subject. At presstime, a bill hadn’t been introduced in the Legislature, but other state lawmakers have expressed support for a law that would allow teachers to be armed in one form or another.

Brown said for her to support a bill, teachers would have to have proper training. O’Neil’s thought was that training should be up to a school board’s discretion.