To Delegate David Toscano, Senator Creigh Deeds and Governor McAuliffe: Please work to stop Virginia HB 1392, which would allow Virginia “school security officers” to carry a firearm in schools. To be clear: Virginia schools already have armed officers in school, known as “school resource officers.” These school resource officers are official police officers placed in schools to specifically serve a law enforcement function. This bill would add to the guns in school by also allowing the “school security officers” to be armed.

Unlike the school resource officers, the security officers are not placed in the school by the local police department and are not intended to provide law-enforcement or security services. As defined by the Virginia Code, school security officers are hired by local school districts for “the singular purpose of maintaining order and discipline, preventing crime, investigating violations of school board policies, and detaining students violating the law or school board policies on school property or at school-sponsored events and who is responsible solely for ensuring the safety, security, and welfare of all students, faculty, staff, and visitors in the assigned school.”

The security officers, who are focused on maintaining order and discipline among students in the school, do not need to be lethally armed in doing so, particularly when schools already have armed resource officers in charge of law-enforcement and security for the school. We do not trust these “security officers” to be able to maintain a healthy relationship with the students if they are lethally armed. Governor McAuliffe vetoed a similar bill last year because of his concerns with the training of these “security officers.” This new bill is designed to overcome those concerns. It doesn't matter. 

We do not need more guns in our schools. We already have officially armed police officers who are in charge of school security as school resource officers. We do not need school security guards to be armed as well. Stop this bill from placing more guns in our schools.