HB 415 is a bill that would allow school employees in all Idaho schools to carry concealed firearms and weapons on campus. It has more downsides than you might think.

Please, if you disagree with even one thing in this bill, sign this petition. It's a package deal so if the bill gets passed, everything in it will become law, even the parts you disagree with. Because of all the implications of HB 415, I believe that it is imperative that we encourage our senate to fail it.

The purpose of HOUSE BILL NO. 415 is to “make our schools secure” by “giving the opportunity for Public K-12 school employees to carry concealed weapons [and] act as an armed protection force within the confines of the school”. However, this bill has a plethora of red flags.

Here are the 3 main red flags of the bill:

1. The definition of “school employee” includes: teachers, bus drivers, principals, administrators, coaches, secretaries, janitors, and “volunteers”. Found in Section 2 (2)(i) of the bill.
2. Employees who have weapons at school are not required to disclose that information except to the principal and possibly the school board (both of which cannot disclose this information to anyone, even parents and stakeholders). Found in Section 2 (5)(a) of the bill.
3. Employees won’t be held civilly or criminally liable for “deciding to engage” or not engage during a “lethal threat”. This creates a fuzzy legal situation. Would a teacher get sued for killing an innocent bystander why trying to protect their students? Found in Section 2 (11) of the bill.

Here are 4 of the biggest negative impacts of this bill:

1.  You don't fight fire with fire. Bringing more guns to the scene will only create chaos and put students in danger. Police officers with years of training will sometimes mistake someone for a threat. How much more will this happen when we are creating an "armed protection force" of teachers with 8 hours of training? This also makes it even easier for students who are potential threats to get a weapon. They don't even need to bring a weapon to school, all they need to do is attack teacher. Not to mention all of the accidental gun violence this may cause. Troubled students and students who are part of minority groups may especially be a risk. Teachers with little training are much more likely to misinterpret a situation as "lethal", especially when it involves these types of students.
2. School boards and administrators know their community better than Idaho legislatures do. Under current law, teachers can bring concealed weapons to school with explicit permission from their administrators. People in the community have a more informed opinion on whether teachers in their community should have guns than Idaho legislators do. There is no guarantee that a person with a concealed weapons permit is a "good guy", especially when this bill goes as far as to include "volunteers". Yet, that seems to be what this bill is assuming with this "one size fits all" solution.
3. Parents aren't being assured of their children's safety. Not being able to see if your children's teachers have weapons on them is absurd. Teacher's salaries are publics information, why wouldn't this be? I've already talked to parents who are threatening to pull their children out of school if this bill passes. 
4. Teachers may leave to work in a different state. We've already seen employees in certain professions leave the state recently because of Idaho's laws. Doctors are leaving because of the abortion laws and librarians are considering leaving because of the book bans. Many teachers (especially considering that a large amount of teachers are left leaning) may leave the state out of protest and fear for their own safety. Our schools are already dealing with a teacher shortage, this would make it astronomically worse.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. If you would like more information on the bill itself, here's a link to it in full: https://legislature.idaho.gov/wp-content/uploads/sessioninfo/2024/legislation/H0415.pdf