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School Board Passes Emergency Rule Prohibiting Weapons In Student Vehicles
March 23, 2022
The Escambia County School Board Tuesday night approved an emergency rule to make it illegal for students to have a weapon in a vehicle on a school campus.
Florida law says it’s technically legal for anyone 18 or older to have a lawfully concealed firearm in their vehicle, except when a school board approves an exception to the law for students.
The school district currently has rules against a weapon in a vehicle on a campus, but until Tuesday night a violation would only lead to school disciplinary action. With the emergency rule, law enforcement now had the authority to arrest a student for a weapon on campus.
As NorthEscambia.com first reported earlier this month, the district had proposed an emergency rule that was much broader and would have applied to anyone except law enforcement and school security personnel.
There were two major changes between the emergency rule as first presented and as considered Tuesday night, according to board attorney Elle Odom. She said the biggest change limited the impact to just students, and the second only allows school guardians, or contracted security personnel, to have additional firearms secured in their vehicle without it being a law violation.
“It is my understanding that a number of concerns were raised by members of the public about whether or not they would be impacted by this when they had concealed carry permits. Not just members of the public but also our employees,” Patty Hightower, District 4 school board member said.
“I feel like we are covering the concerns that I have heard from the public,” District 5 board member Bill Slayton said,” and we are mainly covering the concerns I have for the safety of the students.”
One a motion from Hightower and a second by Slayton, the board approved the emergency order 4-0 with Dr. Laura Edler not present.
Hightower said she was supporting the emergency rule, but she wants to have a much broader conversation in the future about preventing people other than students from carrying a weapon on a school campus.
“I really am concerned about firearms being carried by anybody but license law enforcement and our campus security on our school grounds,” Hightower said. “I understand people’s right to carry arms, but these are our students, and these are our schools, and I really am concerned about their safety.”
The emergency rule approved Tuesday night will be in place for up to 90 days while the district works on a permanent rule following a formal rulemaking and advertising process.
The school board took action after a rifle was found inside a vehicle on the Tate High School campus last month.
An AR-15 rifle along with four magazines and 34 rounds of ammunition were found February 15 inside an 18-year old student’s truck while it was parked on campus, and the student was suspended. The Escambia County Sheriff’s Office said it was determined in consultation with the State Attorney’s Office that no law was broken because the school district had not ever approved a waiver like the emergency rule now in effect.
The student and a 16-year old were later charged with felony grand theft of a firearm after the weapon was reported as stolen.
NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Comments
28 Responses to “School Board Passes Emergency Rule Prohibiting Weapons In Student Vehicles”
@Sedition
Awesome, so we agree that gun ownership should be limited to people who are over the age of 18, have demonstrated that they are capable of being responsible with a firearm, and have not committed a violent felony.
You didn’t mention it, but I’m going to assume you agree that private citizens shouldn’t be allowed to bring firearms into police stations, courthouses, and military bases as well.
Can you explain to me why those restrictions are “good”, but any further restriction on where a person can bring a gun are “bad”? Is our country really so failed that it will collapse if we don’t let kids leave guns in their cars during school hours?
@Bob
If they’re over 18, no violent felonies, not on drugs…then no.
@Sedition
So just to clarify, telling kids that they cannot leave a rifle unattended in their vehicle during school hours is an affront to liberty?
How do you feel about the fact that firearms are already prohibited in jails, courthouses, airports, police stations, national forests, military bases, and post offices?
Do you believe there should be any limit on who should be allowed to carry a weapon, what kind of weapon they can carry, and where?
@Bob
“If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.”
― Samuel Adams
@ Bob, a child can’t own a handgun period. Only a rifle or shotgun. Hunting is a sport that many young people enjoy in this area, which is much better than them being stuck behind a video game.
@Tt, A SEARCH OF CARS ENTERING GATES??? ARE YOU BEING SERIOUS RIGHT NOW?????
Something is seriously wrong with the way people think. If someone had a gun intended for harming someone, they would know how to hide it for a search! New stricter gun laws would make no difference because BAD PEOPLE DON’T FOLLOW THE LAWS! It would only be a restriction for LAW ABIDING CITIZENS.
@Sedition
Sure, I cannot shout “Fire” in a crowded theatre if there is no fire present. My freedom of speech is being curtailed in the interest of public safety.
If I own a newspaper, I cannot print false information about you and make a call for violence. My freedom of the press is being curtailed in the name of public safety.
If I follow a religion that demands human sacrifice, I am prohibited from sacrificing people on my front lawn. My freedom of religion is being curtailed in the name of public safety.
You enjoy freedom from being trampled in a panicked theatre, freedom from libel, and freedom from being murdered by a cult because we, as a society, have agreed that we have a responsibility to protect our neighbors.
Part of the obligation of living in a functioning society is a social contract to protect the freedoms and safety of your neighbors. If you don’t want to participate in modern society anymore, you’re definitely welcome to move out in the woods by yourself and do whatever you want.
Until then, don’t be a hypocrite. Demanding other people sacrifice their freedom to protect you while simultaneously refusing to sacrifice your freedom to protect others is dumb.
Your biggest focus on this unfortunately is the gun and not the thieves.
And this is why our country is failing.
@Bob
“…but I cannot shout “Fire” in a crowded theatre.”
Absolutely, you can…if there is indeed a fire within the theater.
You can submit your God given, Constitutionally PROTECTED rights all you please, but I will not accept my rights being “curtailed” at all. The government, any government, doesn’t have the authority, no matter what the Supreme Court says…after all, they are the 3rd branch of government from whom our rights are protected FROM.
@ George. Not referring to the weapons they used in a war, he is referring to their age and state of mind. You missed the point entirely.
@ Josh Jones. Really?
your school board ruling is not law. not passed through legislation and does not adhere to the FS 790 laws on the books. ANYONE who has a CCW can legally leave their concealed weapon in their vehicle on school grounds. NOT just a parent, or guardian. You people cannot just make up rulings to circumvent the laws on the books. Impeach the school board members, impeach the BOCC as well. I hope the board is sued to the moon and back. Also the law applies to an 18 year old as well. Read up people, knowing your rights make it harder for them to take them away. Being ignorant is what is making these “rulings” stick.
No students should have gun at school. Maybe they should do a search of cars as they enter the GATES.
Fence Jumper:
“@ Josh Jones. Most of the men who stormed the beaches of Normandy were 18 year old teenagers with guns.”
And when those 18 year olds returned home they relinquished their weapons and returned to working in the factories, supermarkets and everywhere else without their weapon…
Bob
I may shout “Fire” in a crowded theater if I want to, but I will face criminal charges if someone is injured.
I may practice religious rituals in my yard if I please, but I will be indited for murder if I kill someone.
In each case, limits are imposed on my behavior by personal responsibility, not by restriction of my rights of speech or religion.
The difference is critical and lays at the core of objection to rules like the one in this article. Rules like this don’t just abridge rights, they also erode the rule of law that protect all our rights.
See this for what it is. Five members of a local school board will, if We allow it, assume the power to decide where and under what circumstances the rights of others may be restricted or taken away. Many don’t like guns and don’t want them around yet expect to enjoy all the blessings of Liberty. These folks might benefit from an exercise of thought. I respectfully suggest they remove the words “weapon” and “campus” from this rule and put in “store” or “gym” or “cell phone” or “protest” or whatever places and things they care about. All of our rights share the same protection, and therefore the same fate.
@Sedition
I’m no constitutional scholar, but I think there’s a big difference between “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed” and “Kids who can’t be trusted to drink a beer should have the right to bring firearms to their school”.
Our rights can be curtailed to promote safety and enforce the rights of others. I have freedom of speech, but I cannot shout “Fire” in a crowded theatre. I have freedom of religion, but I cannot perform human sacrifice in my front yard. I have the freedom to purchase firearms, but I cannot take them into businesses or government buildings that prohibit weapons.
Nope. Some tyrant school board does not have the authority to overrule the Bill of Rights.
PERIOD.
I’m a law-abiding military veteran, qualified marksman and sharpshooter, with 22+ years of carrying a sidearm daily. I was raised with guns and I have a Florida CCW. I have to travel through all sorts of areas and traffic to pick up a grandchild at school, but I have to give up my rights to self-defense because a delinquent kid broke the law, giving the anti-gun bullies an excuse to grab the control they so very much desire.
as a teenager in the 60s, during dove season we brought our shotguns to school and headed to the fields after school. very few had a car or truck. these days the school parking lots looks like walmart at Christmas. there really is a thing called the good ol days.
Half of the school district employees would be relieved of their positions if they were fired for having legal firearms in their vehicles. Keyword, “legal”. You can’t get teachers now and then you’re going to fire the ones who can carry legally for having something secured in a vehicle they own….not the school district? The left-wing over-reactive slide continues I see. School “guardians and security personnel”………have you seen some of these folks? I wouldn’t let them guard a rack of tennis balls, much less a school full of kids!
@ Josh Jones. Most of the men who stormed the beaches of Normandy were 18 year old teenagers with guns.
Does it count if the student identifies their self as a police officer?
Questions to ask when making rules to correct the action of individuals in volved in a particular incident.
1. Were the individuals in volved in the incident obeying current laws?
2. Would the new rule have prevented the incident from happening?
3. Will the new rule prevent future incidents from happening?
4. Will the new rule have a positive impact on law abiding citizens?
5. Will this rule 100% prevent another incident of this nature from happening?
6. Was anyone threatened or harmed due to this incident?
7. Are there currently rules and or laws that, had they been followed, would have prevented the incident, and or future incidents from happening?
8. Why make the rule?
If the answer to questions 1-6 is no, refer to question 8. If the answer to question 7 is yes, refer to question 8.
Please don’t think I am not for the safety of our children and creating a safe environment for learning, because I am, but knee jerk reactions tend to end up as useless rules that cannot be enforced. The only way to enforce this rule would be to inspect every vehicle that comes on campus. So basically, they are creating a rule they cannot, or will not, enforce, and they are criminalizing law-abiding citizens in the process.
Hooray for common sense! It’s time we acknowledged that the brains of teenagers (even some eighteen year olds) are not fully developed. It’s a bad idea for a teenager to be carrying around a weapon, especially at school.
“There were two major changes between the emergency rule as first presented and as considered Tuesday night, according to board attorney Elle Odom.
She said the biggest change limited the impact to just students,
and the second only allows school guardians, or contracted security personnel, to have additional firearms secured in their vehicle without it being a law violation.”
How can both be true? It can’t be limited to just students and also restrict everyone else other than security?
And I don’t believe Florida law gives the school board the legal right to restrict anyone other than students.
Good job Escambia School board for leaving parents out of it.
Good.
I know there are a bunch of gun nuts who will be upset that their kid will no longer be allowed to bring a handgun on campus, but there is absolutely no reason we need to turn our school campus into the OK Corral.
Everyone knows that a gun will just get up and shoot someone… by itself.