Big Horn County schools get together on new concealed carry gun law

Law enforcement, superintendents and school board chairs from around Big Horn County gathered in Cowley on Monday, July 7, to discuss the end of gun-free school zones, which became law this month.

“Guns and schools never mix …,” said Big Horn County School District No. 3 Superintendent Mark Fritz. “I think that’s what’s hard. … Just knowing that there’s more guns at school just makes people more nervous.”

Big Horn County School District No. 1 organized the meeting, which was intended to get law enforcement and school officials on the same page about how to handle the change as it comes into effect for this school year.

On the schools’ end, they have two basic choices: accept the law as it is written, allowing any adult on campus with a permit to concealed carry; or require additional training for their staff and volunteers. 

Fritz said after speaking with law enforcement, he would recommend to his board that they opt to have employees trained. The law would recommend 16 hours of live-fire training, eight hours of scenario-based training and 12 hours of annual training after the first year.

Law enforcement officials have suggested they may develop a training program for those wishing to carry in a school setting. As part of that curriculum, carriers would be taught how to respond to law enforcement arrival in an active shooter situation. 

Big Horn County Sheriff’s Sgt. Craig Shidler suggested that additional training topics could include legal information on use of force, penalties and liabilities. BHCSO expects to continue training schools on Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate (ALICE) shooter resistance procedures in accordance with national standards. 

“I don’t know if it will ever be enough. If that situation ever happens, you’re never totally prepared,” Fritz said. “But give them enough training to have them be successful; give them the training that they need.” 

If the school board were to accept the recommendation to require training, they would still have to decide how it would be funded — entirely by the school, by the staff member or a cost-share. Then there are additional questions, like who supplies the gun and bullets, and would a certain gun be required.

In June, Fritz submitted a request to the county commission asking for funding for a school resource officer in Greybull, the last Big Horn County school district without one. Previously, BHCSO had submitted a $55,000 proposal to the school district to provide a full-time officer, which the board accepted. Shidler reported that a COPS grant application, which would cover part of the cost of a full-time SRO in Greybull, had recently been submitted. Dependent on if that funding is received and the overall county budget, the commissioners will then decide whether to allocate money toward an SRO for Greybull. 

“We’re hopeful that we will have something in place before the school year, but I can’t speak to whether or not that’s going to happen right now. I just don’t know. There’s still a lot of things moving,” Shidler said. 

“I think that would be a real positive thing coming out of the law from the legislators, that we would get an SRO paid for,” Fritz said. “I just wish that would be in our formula. I think in the legislation, if we’re going to fund a bunch of things, it should fund an SRO for school districts. ... If we’re going to have guns in schools, we can certainly pay for SROs to have at school.”

Shidler confirmed that law enforcement responses are expected to remain the same in the event of an active shooter as the new law comes into effect. He expressed that a congruous approach to the new school policy across the county would benefit law enforcement officers in their response to potential threats. 

“I was really excited to see that all of the school districts seemed to pretty well be on board with a consistent approach as far as guns in schools and response ideology,” he said.

“I’m sure there will be growing pains throughout the state as more information and more procedure comes to light, but I think that’s the biggest thing. Schools are concerned that we want to keep our kids safe as well as law enforcement, and I’m sure there will be situations that our legislators haven’t planned for that we’re going to have to deal with as this progresses.”