St. Maries School Board OKs concealed carry for district staff
Coeur d'Alene School Resource Officer Mario Rios watches over a Coeur d'Alene School Board meeting in 2021. St. Maries School Board trustees just approved a policy that will allow staff to carry concealed guns on school property. Coeur d'Alene, Post Falls and Lakeland Joint school districts are not considering a similar policy at this time.
HANNAH NEFF/Press File
Employees of the St. Maries School District will soon have the option to carry concealed firearms on school property following a unanimous Monday evening vote by school board trustees.
The motion was made by Vice Chair Paul Sotin and seconded by Trustee Beth Halvorsen after much discussion about training.
Policy 5900 will go into effect at the start of the 2025-26 school year.
Before the final policy was approved, Chair Seth Stoke made the motion to remove language from a previous version that would require all new staff members to be employed by St. Maries School District for two years before submitting an application to conceal carry. The motion received three yes votes but a nay from Halvorsen. The language was replaced with a requirement that all new employees who are also new carriers would need to be with the district for two years.
"If they check one of the four boxes of being experienced military, law enforcement, completed academy, five years of carrying a firearm with at least one year of (Enhanced Concealed Carry License), I feel that if they’ve been a teacher for a few years and they come to our district, I think they would be fine," Sotin said.
“Or if they’re not a teacher,” Stoke added. “Not just teachers; we can't specify that, if it’s someone that’s taking up another position.”
No employee will be required to carry a gun. Only those who have and maintain a current Enhanced Concealed Carry Weapons License in accordance with Idaho law and those who have completed one-time 40 hours of training that are state or nationally sponsored are eligible to be considered to apply to possess a firearm on school property.
In Idaho, it is generally illegal to possess firearms — including concealed carry — on school property. Some exceptions exist, such as for school employees with enhanced concealed carry licenses and with school board approval.
The Coeur d'Alene School District is not considering allowing its staff members to carry concealed weapons on campus at this time, Superintendent Shon Hocker said Tuesday.
"We have nine safety resource officers across our campuses, so we are in a different position, perhaps, than other more rural school districts such as St. Maries," Hocker said.
No employees other than school resource officers are allowed to have firearms in the Post Falls School District.
"The board isn't considering this as our local police are literally minutes away," Superintendent Dena Naccarato said.
Lakeland Joint Superintendent Lisa Arnold said because her district has more access to law enforcement agencies than St. Maries does and with the creation of the armed district safety specialist (formerly armed guard) position, Lakeland opted not to allow staff to carry.
"If you look at the rate of accidental discharges, even among law enforcement officers, it appeared to us that we were opening ourselves to accidents that were not necessary," Arnold said. "If our district were situated in a different area geographically, we might have had to make a different decision."