Wittig: gun law ‘changes nothing’

Tamaqua School Board President Larry Wittig says a new law doesn’t change the district’s controversial policy about arming staffers.

Gov. Tom Wolf signed Senate Bill 621 on Tuesday, “which clarifies existing law to mandate explicit and more robust training requirements for armed school security personnel and further prevent the arming of untrained nonsecurity personnel, including teachers,” according to his office.

Wolf said, “My administration worked to amend this bill to prevent it from allowing teachers to be armed. Pennsylvania law now makes clear that teachers may not be armed. Moreover, this bill now standardizes training and clarifies my administration’s guidance against arming teachers — guidance that some school districts attempted to ignore.”

Wolf said the bill “defines ‘school security personnel’ to clarify that only school police officers, school resource officers, and school security guards are “security personnel.”

He added, “The students, parents and educators in this Commonwealth can now be secure in the knowledge that teachers can dedicate themselves to teaching our children, and that the security of school facilities rests in the hands of trained, professional security personnel.”

Wittig says, however, “It changes nothing.”

He added, “Teachers were not mentioned in the law.”

The school board adopted the policy last fall and agreed in January to temporarily suspend the implementation of the controversial policy, No. 705, following the filing of two legal challenges, one by the union and another by a group of Tamaqua parents. The board, however, revived the plan in April, saying appeals of the court cases could last for years, and the district is ready to move forward.

Wittig said from what he can see, the law “changes nothing relative to (Policy) 705.”

“It does talk about training, but it does not say that a security guard cannot have another job in the district,” he said. “The bill does not ensure that teachers can’t carry weapons.”

Director Nick Boyle echoed Wittig’s sentiment.

“There is nothing in that law that says you can’t arm teachers,” Boyle said. “Teachers are not even mentioned in the law.”

The district said carrying a firearm would be voluntary and not an incidence of their employment, which would require the same training as police officers.

It also contends that although no specific state statute authorizes the district to enact its policy, none prevents it from doing so.

Boyle dismissed it as “political posturing.”

Fight continues

Steven J Cholish, the PSEA/NEA UniServ representative, said the teachers will not withdraw the lawsuit against the district.

“Although we are pleased with the legislation that Gov. Wolf has signed into law, we believe that we must continue our suit to ensure that only properly trained law enforcement professionals are carrying firearms in Tamaqua Area Schools, as well as any other schools in the State of Pennsylvania. It is still our position that only properly trained law enforcement professionals can ensure the safety of the students, faculty and staff,” Cholish said.

Shira Goodman, executive director of CeaseFirePA, who worked with parents to file a suit against the district, agreed that the lawsuit must continue.

She said, “The Department of Education and the governor believe the law does not allow arming teachers,” but the law must be clear.

Goodman said the law might end up as part of the litigation.

“The governor must be clear on what this means, so that schools are not arming teachers, cafeteria workers and other staff,” Goodman said.

She said the organization asked the governor to veto the bill in favor of making it more clear.

Goodman said there is no evidence that adding more armed personnel makes schools safer and could be detrimental in that it creates confrontations.

“Everybody wants schools to be safe,” she said.

Goodman thinks teachers and experts should be called to testify to enhance the law.

She believes, “We need to be investing in school guidance counselors to identify kids at risk. That’s more proactive than a knee-jerk reaction.”

Marta Gouger contributed to this report.