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TEN SLEEP – The Ten Sleep School Board is seeking public input on its proposed firearms policy.

The public is encouraged to attend the board’s regular meeting Monday at 7 p.m. and give their opinion about the proposed firearm policy. The firearm policy was created by a panel consisting of about 10 people from the community, the school and parents in accordance with Wyoming Statute 21-3-132 giving the board of trustees the option to adopt rules and regulations allowing employees to possess firearms on campus.

“We are hoping that we will have the patrons who have opinions on whether or not this policy should be passed. The board is wanting to know what our parents and patrons think and feel about this issue, so this is an opportunity for people to come out and let the board know their thoughts. [Washakie County Sheriff] Steve Rakness will be here, our attorney will be here to talk to the board,” Ten Sleep School Superintendent Jimmy Phelps said. “I think this policy should pass if the patrons and parents of our district want this policy. I feel that this needs to be a community decision, is this what we need in order to properly protect our students or not?”

He added that since the Legislature is giving school districts this opportunity, and given the fact that the sheriff has said it would take significant time to respond, is this policy something the board should approve.

“Is this something that we would be negligent if we did not do or is this something that would not be appropriate for our district? I am very comfortable with it passing and very comfortable if it doesn’t pass,” Phelps said. Phelps added that if he had a vote he would probably vote for the policy to pass.

The Ten Sleep School proposed firearm policy states that any staff member interested in carrying a firearm must submit an application to the school board signed and sworn to under oath and that the following requirements need to be met:

— The employee must possess and maintain a valid concealed carry permit issued pursuant to W.S. 6-8-104, and must submit a copy of such permit with the application, and must submit all renewals of that permit during the time when the employee is authorized to carry a firearm on school district property;

— The employee shall fulfill training requirements approved by the Board of Trustees of School District and the Washakie County Sheriff’s office:

—Prior to carrying a firearm on school district property, complete an initial training course comprised of not less than 16 hours of live fire handgun training, and 8 hours of scenario-based training using nonlethal training, firearms and ammunition.

— Thereafter, the employee shall provide documentation of qualification and recurrent training of not less than 12 hours each year with an approved instructor. The employee shall participate in training specifically designed to address active shooter situations, hostage situations, and situations with armed students who present a threat to themselves or others. All trainings shall be approved by the Washakie County Sheriff’s Office.

— Approved employee must pass a suitability evaluation administered by an approved psychologist selected by the school district.

During the Oct. 2017 school board meeting, Washakie County Sheriff Steve Rakness explained to the board the types of training that employees wishing to carry would require. “You’re going to have to have some hands-on training to ensure that this person is going to be capable of always carrying a firearm, whenever they are in school, all the time and being able to use force to stop a situation. The sheriff’s office right now carry 9 mm and .45 caliber handguns and that’s what I recommend you guys do as well if that’s what you choose. I would recommend no shoulder holsters, always have a hip holster, you have to do the same thing each time, its muscle memory,” Rakness stated. “We [law enforcement] as a minimum qualify with our handgun two times a year, we qualify with our rifles two times a year and two times a year we train live fire with our handguns and our rifles plus we throw in force-on-force training. We have, the sheriff’s office and police department in Worland, simunitions, so we take our duty weapons, our rifles and our pistols and we put a conversion kit on them and they shoot paint bullets. We go train like that face to face, force on force. And then when that happens you can see how people react in a stressful situation and that’s what you have to put your folks through, to understand, a use of force situation because nothing that you will plan for, nothing that will happen, no situation that will occur will ever be black and white, I can guarantee that,” he added.

The proposed firearm policy states that any employee approved to carry a firearm will be expected to use his/her own judgement to protect the lives of student, staff and themselves. That the firearm shall only be permitted to be fired if the employee reasonably perceives an imminent threat to staff or students. The firearm being carried must not have a bullet in the chamber and that the holster design must contain a retention method to restrict the firearm from accidentally falling out.

Rakness explained to the board in the Oct. 2017 meeting that anyone chosen to carry would need to be extremely vetted and that once a policy is passed, it needs to be kept going. “It’s going to be hard because you are going to have to pick somebody that can bear that burden. You will have a hard time finding someone to do this kind of job because it’s going to be a 100 percent commitment. You’re going to have a firearm with you all the times and that’s a pretty big burden. Are you going to have somebody that will fit that role? How long are you going to look until you find somebody that can fit into that role,” Rakness said. “If you start a program here, you are going to have to keep doing it. You can’t start it and let it go. If you start it you have to keep going,” he added.

WHERE TO READ THE POLICY

Copies of the proposed policy can be viewed on the Ten Sleep School website at http://www.wsh2.k12.wy.us, the Ten Sleep Library, the post office in Ten Sleep, the Pony Express and Dirty Sally’s in Ten Sleep.