As other suburban school districts opt out, Ankeny appears unlikely to arm teachers

Another Des Moines-area school district appears unlikely to let teachers carry guns in schools.

House File 2586, signed by Gov. Kim Reynolds in April, makes it possible for school employees to obtain a professional permit to have guns on school grounds, but leaves it up to individual school districts to decide whether to allow firearms.

Ankeny school district officials told the School Board at its May 6 meeting that they will not recommend arming school employees.

Des Moines Public Schools and several suburban school districts already have announced they do not expect to allow their staffs to carry guns in schools.

More: Why Des Moines schools aren’t letting teachers carry guns despite new law

Before the new bill, Iowa law allowed school staff to carry firearms. But two northwest Iowa school districts that approved arming staff faced losing their insurance coverage last year.

Lawmakers have said the new law could ease insurance issues, requiring training to receive the professional permit and granting qualified immunity as protection from criminal or civil liability for use of reasonable force. However, insurance agency representatives told the Ankeny School Board that allowing district employees to carry guns would still threaten the district's coverage, and that piecing together an alternative could be cost prohibitive.

Legal staff also told the board that the qualified immunity is narrowly defined and would not apply to situations involving negligence, use of guns by staff members without the required permit or a student getting access to a gun. The district would also be faced with attorney fees in potential litigation, even if the qualified immunity applied.

The question of allowing district employees to carry firearms is separate from contracting with a school resource officer from a police department or school security officer from a private business.

The board is expected to vote on the issue when it meets May 20.

A Des Moines Register/Mediacom poll from February found 60% of Iowans support allowing school staff to have firearms.

New law also requires SROs for larger school districts in Iowa

The bill also requires Iowa's largest school districts, with 8,000 students or more, to have a school resource officer or private security officer at attendance centers for grades nine through 12 unless a school board votes not to have them.

In Ankeny, the affected schools would be Southview and Northview middle schools and Ankeny and Centennial high schools. The district currently has an Ankeny police resource officer for each of the high schools.

Superintendent Erick Pruitt said the district is on track for a third resource officer, starting in January 2025, and has asked companies that provide armed security to provide quotes for additional coverage.

Under the law, the required school officer would need to be a police officer, a reserve police officer or a private security officer. The district's current safety staff, as employees of the district itself, do not qualify.

Chris Higgins covers the eastern and northern suburbs for the Register. Reach him at chiggins@registermedia.com or 515-423-5146 and follow him on Twitter @chris_higgins_

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Ankeny schools appear unlikely to let teachers have guns in schools