Minnesota Democrats, including Gov. Tim Walz, are pushing hard for a ban on so-called assault weapons and large capacity magazines after the shooting at a Catholic church in Minneapolis last month that left two school children dead and more than a dozen injured. But many school officials in rural Minnesota are pushing back on a gun control response to the shooting, and are urging lawmakers instead to spend some serious money to address security shortfalls on campuses throughout the state.
“Cameras, security at entrances, weapon detection technology, bulletproof windows, communication systems ... these all cost money, and right now our society would need to make a commitment to invest in our schools,” said Jamie Boelter, superintendent at the New London-Spicer School District.
Around 75 school districts in the state are asking voters for more money this fall, according to the Minnesota Department of Education. While the majority of funding requests are for operating and building expenses, Madelia and Jackson County Central are seeking money to pay for cameras and other safety measures. Alexandria is asking for $3 million in safety and security improvements.
Nevis, where voters in April resoundingly rejected a $41.5 million bond request, is waiting until next year to ask again in hopes of getting upgrades with an emphasis on securing school buildings.
Superintendent Ranae Seykora, who is in her first year at Nevis, said there are doors that don’t lock. She said she is hesitant to share too much detail because she wants to underscore the urgency without revealing vulnerabilities.
... Sam Walseth, a lobbyist for the Minnesota Rural Education Association, said that in advocacy sessions with rural districts in recent weeks, many of them said they favor a state spending priority on personnel, including social workers and counselors.
“The hard truth about a lot of this is there’s only so much you can do when you’re talking about battling against high-powered rifles,” Walseth said. “We’re not going to turn our schools into prisons and fortresses. ... But there are a lot of things we can do trying to minimize situations.”
Bonds are one way for school districts to get money to upgrade infrastructure, though they're not always viewed favorably by local voters, especially when the cost of living has increased substantially over the past few years.
That's one reason why Republicans in the Minnesota legislature have introduced their own package of legislation in response to the Annunciation shooting; one that focuses on grants to school districts to upgrade physical security, adding additional school resource officers, and providing safety funding to private schools as well as private schools.
Though the effectiveness of school resource officers (SROs) has been heavily debated, many districts want them. However, the districts say they can’t afford contracting for the SROs with their local sheriff’s office or police department.
The tradeoffs between making sure students are safe and keeping the lights on at smaller school districts that are already stretched thin is “absurd,” said Paul Peterson, superintendent for Mankato Area Public Schools.
“Every dollar we spend on fortifying schools and training staff is a dollar that isn’t going toward teaching and supporting kids,” Peterson said.
In southwest Minnesota, leaders at smaller school districts such as Renville County West, Minneota and Lac qui Parle Valley School District said they wish they could afford an SRO.
In Lakeview, finding funds for even a part-time officer shared with another district is difficult. “Cost is the barrier,” said superintendent Chris Fenske.
Minnesota law already allows for armed school staff on K-12 campuses so long as the employees have permission from school administrators, but the practice is still almost unheard of in the state.
Ideally each campus would have an SRO and a certain number of armed staff in place, but if smaller, more rural districts can't afford to have school resource officers in place they should seriously look at adopting policies that at least allow for trained and vetted employees to volunteer to carry a concealed firearm on the clock to serve as a first line of defense in case of a targeted attack.
At the moment, the vast majority (if not the entirety) of public schools in Minnesota don't allow for armed school staff members. If Democrats at the state capitol refuse to go along with the Republican plan to bolster school security, though, it's an option that more districts will hopefully take advantage of in the future.
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