Oklahoma education secretary raises eyebrows with tweet about arming teachers (2024)

OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma’s secretary of education raised eyebrows with a social media post urging school districts to arm teachers and staff in a bid to ensure that students “are not sitting ducks in a classroom” targeted by gunmen.

He tweeted his comment Wednesday, following Tuesday’s shooting in Uvalde, Texas.

Ryan Walters said by phone Thursday that school shootings aren’t “a gun issue,” and there needs to be a broader conversation about mental health and the nation’s culture and society.

One education organization called Walters’ proposal “short-sighted.”

“In the short term, we have seen evil target innocent lives in schools, we should be allowing folks on site to be able to defend themselves,” Walters said. “There is a reason why in this country we believe that God gave us the right of self defense because there is evil in the world, and unfortunately, we live in a point in time where over the last 30 years that evil has targeted our children. And so we have to be able to defend ourselves and defend our kids against that evil.”

Walters said he’s asking districts to do all they can to protect the children in their care.

Oklahoma law already allows districts to decide on an individual basis whether to arm teachers. However, it does not require districts to report who has opted in or which individual school personnel have been authorized to carry. Oklahoma Department of Education officials said Thursday that they don’t know who is carrying in school, or where.

Don Spencer, president of the Oklahoma Second Amendment Association, said his group successfully fought off efforts to make that information public because teacher-carry is controversial. But, Spencer said at last count that he’d heard just 12 of Oklahoma’s districts had authorized armed personnel. All are in rural parts of the state.

“They don’t want people overreacting that a teacher may be carrying in a school room,” Spencer said. “There could be parents that would be saying, ‘Oh no, I will never let my kid go to that school because there’s a gun in the classroom.’”

Under existing law, school boards decide which educators can carry. An educator must complete certified law enforcement or armed security guard training. Schools boards set the policy about whether a firearm can be worn and how it needs to be secured.

Spencer’s group has unsuccessfully attempted to loosen that, so an educator would only be required to have a valid handgun license and any additional training their local board would require. But, he said that’s “not a real popular item” with Republican lawmakers. A similar provision has been in place for private schools since 2011, he said.

The opt-in gun policy allows teachers to be prepared in case a shooter is trying to come to their room, Spencer said. He said during other school shootings across the country, student resource officers have been unable or unwilling to stop a shooter, so that’s why “we think it’s also good and advantageous to have other people there.”

“The quicker the second gun arrives, the quicker the situation is over,” Spencer said.

One of the first schools to authorize teacher-carry was Okay Public Schools, north of Muskogee. The district has a sign out front that warns visitors that faculty are armed, Spencer said. School district officials did not return a message seeking comment Thursday.

“I think that’s a wonderful warning,” Spencer added.

But the proposal is divisive.

When the Professional Oklahoma Educators last polled its members about arming teachers in 2018, only about half thought it was a good idea — even with law enforcement training. That number increased to 70.5% for those that had a concealed carry permit, but more than half wanted their colleagues to have to undergo a psychological screening first, said Ginger Tinney, the group’s executive director.

Of those surveyed, 17% responded that educators should never be armed at school, Tinney said.

The group expects to re-poll its membership about the issue later this year.

Tinney said she agrees with teachers who say it’s not their job to be armed, but said some do want to have the option.

“We know what happens if they’re not armed – the kids are killed,” Tinney said.

She said 84.9% of those surveyed said schools should employ retired military or police personnel for protection.

“We don’t really sign up to be in law enforcement,” Tinney said. “We sign up to teach, but of course our jobs have changed somewhat. … We’re not law enforcement, but we are natural protectors.”

She also said she understands why educators would be reluctant to carry a gun.

“The teaching job is so difficult, it’d be hard to carry a gun,” Tinney said. “It just would be among all the other 1,000 things a teacher has to carry. I just think we have to dig much deeper as a society. You know the politicians have security, well, we’d like to have a detail operation as well. Our schools, our kids deserve that.”

She called on federal lawmakers to increase school funding so that every campus could have at least one trained officer.

Katherine Bishop, president of the Oklahoma Education Association, said it’s “disappointing” to hear from any state leader “a short-sighted one-size fits all solution to a very complex problem.”

“To say that we just need to do one thing – to arm teachers – that’s not the solution here,” she said.

Bishop said schools don’t need teachers acting as trained security. They need professional security or law enforcement officers who are also trained in active-shooter response.

“I hear from educators all the time – teachers and support professionals and administrators – they want to be making sure they’re transporting kids safely and making sure that they’re teaching the students English and math.” she said. “That’s what they want to be doing. They don’t want to be carrying a gun.”

She said having guns in classrooms brings all sorts of questions, including how to ensure a weapon is secure and everyone is professionally trained to know how to use it and knows when to use it.

But Bishop said she knows in rural Oklahoma communities, superintendents are facing difficult decisions about how to protect and secure their buildings when law enforcement may be far away.

She said in some districts, local leaders believe allowing teachers to carry firearms helps achieve that objective.

Janelle Stecklein covers the Oklahoma Statehouse for CNHI's newspapers and websites. Reach her at jstecklein@cnhinews.com.

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