A legal battle over Tamaqua Area School District’s proposal to arm staff members has continued, with the teachers’ union filing a memorandum of law supporting their lawsuit against the district.

On Sept. 18, the Tamaqua Area School Board enacted a policy authorizing administrators, teachers or other district staff who undergo special training to carry firearms and use deadly force while performing school duties.

According to a complaint filed Nov. 14 by the union, known as the Tamaqua Education Association, teachers are arguing the district wasn’t authorized by the state’s school code to adopt a policy that would arm its employees, and because the policy authorized the employees to carry firearms in schools when they haven’t received training under the Municipal Police Education and Training Law.

The district fired back, asking the court to dismiss the lawsuit because the union “lacked the standing to file it.”

“It is well settled that an association ... has standing to bring a cause of action ... if the association alleges at least one of its members is suffering an immediate or threatened injury as a result of the challenged action,” union lawyer Jesika Steuerwalt wrote in their response. “As employees, the terms and conditions of association members’ employment and their professional responsibility to protect students are directly subject to the policies of the district. Association members have an interest in a safe workplace, and that interest is threatened by the district’s illegal decision to permit certain government employees to carry loaded firearms and use deadly force without the training and experience required by the General Assembly.”

The district, however, argues “the carrying of weapons for the purpose of self-defense and the defense of others,” does not equate to an immediate or threatened injury to any union member.

Also among district solicitor Jeffrey Bowe’s preliminary objections to the association lawsuit is that there is “no specific state either authorizing or preventing” in the school code the district from adopting the policy.

He wrote that lawmakers have “passed several statutes, known as Article XIII-C School Police Officers and School Resource Officers.”

Tamaqua district’s policy falls under that umbrella, Bowe wrote, because “it is a policy designed to employ other security personnel that TASD deems necessary for the protection of students and TASD employees.”

Steuerwalt argued that there “is no explicit authorization in Article XIII-C stating that other security personnel may carry firearms in school.”

“When read as a whole, Article XIII-C shows the General Assembly’s intent to provide school districts with the power to authorize the use of firearms only by its employees who are serving as school police officers, and to no other school employee,” Steuerwalt wrote.

Tamaqua is the first school district in the state to adopt a policy that would allow teachers to carry firearms in school.

At a Nov. 7 school board meeting, parents and community members in the district laid out extensive alternatives to the policy, including better screening of visitors, infrastructure changes, shooter detection systems, and investments in mental health support and threat assessments.