The three-person Iowa House Public Safety Committee advanced a bill on Monday that would protect Iowa school teachers and staff who carry guns from legal action under qualified immunity.
The legislation was introduced just weeks after the Perry High School shooting, in which Dylan Butler, a 17-year-old Perry student, fatally shot Ahmir Jolliff, an 11-year-old sixth grader, and wounded seven other people, including Principal Dan Marburger. Marburger died from his wounds 10 days later.
A previous state law already gives school officials the right to arm staff with firearms, but some schools have reversed course after receiving pushback from insurance companies who said they wouldn’t cover them over liability concerns.
As of June 2023, 32 states have enacted legislation allowing teachers to carry firearms in the wake of a rise in deadly mass school shootings since the Columbine and Sandy Hook tragedies. With several high-profile shootings happening in the last few years, such as the ones in Uvalde, Texas, at Robb Elementary School and Nashville, Tennessee, at the Covenant School, lawmakers at both the state and federal levels have been working to enact stricter gun laws.
In Iowa, the Public Safety Committee voted 2-1 to advance House Study Bill 675. Under the measure, school districts, private schools, and colleges and universities would be permitted to arm staff.
Teachers and officers wishing to carry a firearm would need to go through a permit process that includes a one-time legal training covering “qualified immunity, annual emergency medical training and annual communication training.”
During the 2022-2023 school year, Spirit Lake and Cherokee school districts approved arming staff. However, they reversed their decisions after EMC Insurance declined to cover the small rural districts ahead of the 2023-2024 school year if staff would be carrying weapons, according to the Des Moines Register.
“Qualified immunity” would protect a teacher from legal action should they get sued related to their carrying of a firearm.
“We had implemented guns as a safety measure in our school — had it in place for six months — and then EMC told us they were going to terminate our insurance,” Spirit Lake Superintendent David Smith said during the Monday hearing. “So, we had to go away from it and we’re struggling to find a new carrier. We know immunity is a big piece that will help us find people from the outside to come in and insure us.”
Opponents of the bill also spoke out against the measure at the hearing on Monday.
“We ask that you oppose this bill because of its provisions of qualified immunity,” Roosevelt High School student Hannah Hayes said on behalf of Students Demand Action, which opposes HSB 675. “To arm school personnel raises concerns about accountability and oversight, further undermining the bill’s efficacy and potential for unintended consequences. As a student myself, I can tell you that adding more guns to schools is not going to make me safer.”
Under HSB 675, school districts with 8,000 or more students would also be required to have at least one security officer or school resources officer in schools where 9th through 12th grade students attend classes. Private schools and public schools with fewer than 8,000 students would be encouraged to contract with or employ a security guard or school resource officer.
If passed, the Iowa Department of Education would create a school security personnel grant that provides up to $50,000 per district in matching funds to cover the costs.
The Nebraska legislature is looking to pass a similar bill that would give teachers the ability to arm themselves if they undergo proper training. It also gives local school boards the ability to allow off-duty law enforcement officers to carry guns onto school property, and the measure would create detailed maps of school buildings and grounds for police and first responders in the event of a school shooting.
In Tennessee, private school teachers can carry a gun if that school permits them, but it is not allowed in public schools. Following the Covenant shooting that killed three students and three teachers, lawmakers delayed debating a bill that would have expanded gun-carrying access for teachers.
Some Alabama school administrators are allowed to have a firearm on campus if they complete training through the state’s sentry program and there is not an SRO available to be on campus, according to the RAND Corporation.
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In May of last year, Gov. Eric Holcomb (R-IN) signed a bill into law to create a state-funded program that provides handgun training for interested teachers. Indiana state law already allowed school districts to permit their teachers to be armed, but no training was required, according to the Associated Press.
Most states, except for Georgia, Iowa, Michigan, and Nevada, require school or school districts to grant permission for a security guard to carry a firearm, according to the Giffords Law Center.
