Iowa Democrats criticized the Spirit Lake School District’s decision to arm some of its on-campus staff in an attempt to increase school safety.
The board’s approved plan will arm 10 staff members, who will undergo training to participate in the program.
Deidre DeJear, the Democrat candidate for governor, said she was in Spirit Lake earlier this week and talked with people about the plan, saying that people are “devastated.”
“We had an opportunity in our state to have a little bit of a safety net to help prevent or at least deter folks from accessing weapons when they were going to use them for the harm of people,” DeJear said.
DeJear said the district is trying to be preventative, but the current climate created by Gov. Kim Reynolds is challenging their efforts. She said it is “unfortunate” the district feels it has to go to this level.
Democrat House Minority Leader Jennifer Konfrst only offered a few words:
“This is common sense — guns don’t belong in schools, period.”
Sen. Herman Quirmbach said turning schools into “armed camps” is the “absolute wrong way.”
“The psychological effect on our kids I think is devastating,” he added.
Rep. Ross Wilburn said allowing guns in schools adds to the environment of trying to “vilify” educators.
The ones psychologically traumatized by the notion of guns in schools for their protection indeed need psychological help; not for guns but for other issues brought on by cognitive dissonance.