The expanding list of schools that allow teachers and staff to carry guns at K-12 schools

Slowly but surely things are changing.  I have been posting on individual school districts, but it is nice to see a major news story on this point that keeps track of all the different school districts.  While the list below is useful, it misses out on Michigan which allows people to carry guns at school as long as someone has a permit and the gun is carried openly (whether teachers or staff could do that would depend on their employment contract, but that is unlikely any time soon).

From USA Today:

The state of Utah allows teachers to carry concealed guns if they pass a background check and undergo training, a policy that has been in place since 2000. Hawaii does not regulate guns in schools, and New Hampshire bans only students from possessing a firearm on school grounds, according to the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, a nonprofit advocacy group.

This year, legislators in Alabama, Arkansas, Kansas, South Dakota, Tennessee and Texas passed laws that authorize at least one school employee to carry a weapon on campus, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Some of the statutes revised existing laws.

Across the country, several schools allow or will be allowing their teachers to carry concealed weapons:

• St. Helens School District, about 25 miles north of Portland, Ore., voted earlier this month to allow teachers at its two elementary, one middle, one high and three alternative schools to carry weapons with a permit on campus, reversing a March decision to prohibit firearms.

• Clarksville School District about 100 miles northwest of Little Rock, Ark., became the first in the state this school year to arm selected teachers with handguns.

• Newcomerstown Exempted Village School District in northeast Ohio voted to allow authorized staff to carry guns on school property starting this school year.

• In Texas, at least 20 school systems — including the Brookesmith, Canadian, Cayuga, Chapel, Christoval, Ganado, Harmony, Hunt, Huntington, Jonesboro, Levelland, Lingleville, Louise, Palmer, Quanah, Shamrock, Union Grove, Van and West Hardin independent school districts — allow teachers to be armed, according to media reports. Harrold Independent School District began its policy in 2008 in response to the Virginia Tech shootings. . . .

There is also the Briggsdale school district in Colorado.