{"id":29400,"date":"2018-02-27T17:40:22","date_gmt":"2018-02-27T23:40:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=29400"},"modified":"2018-03-01T15:05:37","modified_gmt":"2018-03-01T21:05:37","slug":"oklahoma-superintendent-speaks-out-about-his-districts-decision-to-let-teachers-carry-guns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2018\/02\/27\/oklahoma-superintendent-speaks-out-about-his-districts-decision-to-let-teachers-carry-guns\/","title":{"rendered":"Oklahoma Superintendent Speaks Out About His District\u2019s Decision To Let Teachers Carry Guns"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_29407\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 620px;\"><a class=\"fancybox\" title=\"A demonstration in Washington, D.C., organized by Teens For Gun Reform in the wake of the Feb. 14, 2018, shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.\" href=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/02\/20180219-teens-for-gun-reform001.jpg\" rel=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-large wp-image-29407\" alt=\"A demonstration in Washington, D.C., organized by Teens For Gun Reform in the wake of the Feb. 14, 2018, shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.\" src=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/02\/20180219-teens-for-gun-reform001-620x413.jpg\" width=\"620\" height=\"413\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Lorie Shaull \/ Flickr\/CC BY-SA 2.0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">A demonstration in Washington, D.C., organized by Teens For Gun Reform in the wake of the Feb. 14, 2018, shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.<\/p>\n<\/div><p>Oklahoma lawmakers enacted legislation in 2015 that lets school employees, including teachers, carry guns on campus. Okay Public Schools, near Tahlequah, appears to be the only district in the state that uses the law to arm its staff.<\/p><p>Superintendent Pete Hiseley did not work for the district in 2015 when the Okay Public School Board agreed to let school employees carry guns.<\/p><p>\u201cI can\u2019t speak for all the reasons that this policy was put in place,\u201d he said, \u201cI can only speculate it was for the betterment and protection of our students and our staff.\u201d<\/p><p><!--more--><\/p><p>He says he when got to the district about 9 months ago he was uncertain about the policy, but now Hiseley says he feels comfortable with it. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2018\/02\/27\/588829787\/we-were-in-that-school-parkland-students-prepare-to-return-after-shooting\">Feb. 14 shooting<\/a> at a high school in Parkland, Fla., has reignited a national debate about gun control legislation and how best to protect schools.<\/p><p>\u201cI have a better understanding about the multiple employees that we have trained,\u201d he says. \u201cI understand what our policy is about. I understand that the training that they have to go through, it\u2019s intense.\u201d<\/p><p><a href=\"http:\/\/oklahomawatch.org\/2018\/02\/24\/schools-colleges-largely-off-limits-to-guns-other-places-it-depends\/?utm_source=Newsletter+Subscribers&utm_campaign=0206195358-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_02_27&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_a3f6ea538a-0206195358-100951813&mc_cid=0206195358&mc_eid=75ad4d47bc\">Oklahoma law<\/a> requires armed school staff to have a conceal carry permit. They\u2019re also required to complete a 72-hour armed guard program. But Hiseley says the staff members with guns at his school are even more advanced.<\/p><p>\u201cThey\u2019ve trained with Homeland Security, they\u2019ve trained with multiple agencies, multiple days, multiple hours, at our school,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve got a lot of respect for the amount of time that they\u2019ve put in to that program.\u201d<\/p><p>Hiseley won\u2019t say which school employees are armed. He also says the district would never require any employee to carry a gun.<\/p><p>Hisley says the decision to arm teachers should be made by the community and its local school board. He doesn\u2019t think the state, or anyone else, should tell school officials whether or not employees should have guns.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Oklahoma lawmakers enacted legislation in 2015 that lets school employees, including teachers, carry guns on campus. Okay Public Schools, near Tahlequah, appears to be the only district in the state that uses the law to arm its staff.Superintendent Pete Hiseley did not work for the district in 2015 when the Okay Public School Board agreed [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":191,"featured_media":29407,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[773,774],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29400"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/191"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29400"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29400\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29405,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29400\/revisions\/29405"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}