The Senate Education Committee held a hearing this week on state Sen. Don White's proposal, SB1193, that would allow school boards to authorize whether or not staff may carry guns on school grounds.

Among those testifying was Blue Mountain School District, Orwigsburg, Superintendent Robert L. Urzillo, who said two of his staff members were trained last year by state police to carry weapons on school grounds. The decision met with very little opposition from the public, he said."First, we hoped, and continue to hope, that this will serve as a deterrent. Second, if an armed intruder enters a building or our grounds, armed personnel may be able to eliminate a threat or reduce the extent of harm," Urzillo said.Christine Licata, leader of the state chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, in written testimony called the bill "misguided and dangerous."It would "make guns in schools more common, raising serious risks of gun accidents or worse in our children's learning environments," she wrote.Under state law, only uniformed, court-appointed school police officers are allowed to carry guns on school grounds, she wrote.The bill "does not require school districts to provide parental notification if their child's teacher is armed. As a result, parents would not know if their child is being sent into a classroom where a teacher has a gun hidden," Licata wrote.She cited two recent incidents involving educators and guns."Last week, it was a Utah elementary school teacher who shot herself in the leg in the school's bathroom. Two weeks ago an Idaho State professor shot himself in the foot during class. In both cases the educators were legally allowed to be carrying the firearms on school grounds thanks to dangerous state laws," she said.The Education Law Center also weighed in. Senior staff attorney Deborah Gordon Klehr and staff attorney Nancy Potter wrote of their concerns with the bill."While we share your desire to ensure that our schools are safe places, arming teachers or other school personnel is not the appropriate way to do so," they wrote. "There is no evidence that arming school personnel increases school safety, and there are many reasons to believe that such an option will put more of the school population students, teachers and other school personnel at risk."