If a piece of legislation passed by the Indiana Senate is signed into law, retired police officers and sheriff’s deputies will be allowed to carry guns into Johnson County schools, with some stipulations.
Senate Bill 69, which passed the senate on Jan. 14, has moved to the Indiana House of Representatives, and if it passes that, will go to Gov. Eric Holcomb’s desk to be signed into law.
Every Johnson County school district has active law enforcement that are allowed to carry weapons on campus as part of their respective school resource officer programs or school police departments. School boards can also authorize certain people to carry weapons as long as they are already legally authorized to do so, according to the bill.
But if Senate Bill 69 becomes law, any retired law enforcement officer will be allowed to carry weapons on school campuses as long as they have the proper identification detailed under the Law Enforcement Officer Safety Act, a federal law passed in 2004, said Sen. Jack Sandlin, R-Indianapolis, who authored Senate Bill 69.
“As you retire from a law enforcement agency, you get a retired law enforcement officer ID,” Sandlin said. “If they’re visiting the school going to an extracurricular activity and they’re armed, they can be armed under this statute as long as they have the proper credentials to do that.”
Sandlin represents District 36, which covers the southside of Indianapolis and parts of Greenwood. He previously worked with the Indianapolis and Southport police departments and is familiar with the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office and Franklin and Greenwood police departments. Sandlin believes retired officers should have the ability to protect people with firearms in an emergency situation, an idea that inspired him to sponsor author the bill, he said.
“We have a number of retired officers (who) are in the community,” Sandlin said. “We’re in a different time, and to be able to have a person who has all those years of training and experience be equipped in an emergency is an asset to the community.”
Local school officials reacted to the proposed change this week.
The added element of a visitor being allowed to carry a weapon inside a school will prompt certain schools to take additional precautions, said Doug Arnold, Edinburgh Community Schools superintendent.
“That’s certainly different from what we’ve had to deal with,” Arnold said. “We have a school resource officer (who) carries a weapon and we know he carries a weapon. I guess it concerns me that other individuals can come in carrying weapons unless they can (identify) themselves. I would not want the weapon to be used in a negative way. I think we need to be very careful when we approve this type of law.”
The law, if passed, would take effect July 1, ahead of the 2020-21 school year. If those carrying weapons into schools are retired law enforcement officers and are required by that same law to carry proper identification, Greenwood Community Schools Superintendent Kent DeKoninck isn’t concerned about the change, he said.
“We currently allow officers to have weapons on campus,” DeKoninck said. “These are still officers, but just retired. I don’t have a strong feeling on that one way or the other. We already have the capability of law enforcement officers having a gun. It wouldn’t give me any major heartburn if it was a retired law officer.”
