CLIO, Mich. – A Michigan school board will appeal a recent judge’s decision that certain citizens can openly carry firearms into public schools.

School board members with the Clio Area School District voted 6-0 Tuesday to appeal a recent ruling to the Michigan Court of Appeals that centers on a parent’s right to openly carry a pistol into Edgerton Elementary School, according to the Detroit Free Press.

Kenneth Herman sued the district with the help of the advocacy group Michigan Open Carry after he was denied entry into his daughter’s school on multiple occasions while wearing a holstered pistol in plain sight. School officials allege the pistol is a violation of the district’s “gun-free zone,” but state law allows citizens with a concealed pistol permit to carry a gun openly in public schools, WOOD TV reports.

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Circuit Court Judge Archie Hayman ruled Monday that Herman was within his rights to carry the weapon, and the district has no authority to stop him.

“I think schools being gun free zones is not a wise idea,” Herman told the television station. “I think having law-abiding armed citizens in there provides some measure of protection that isn’t a glass door that can be broken out.”

Michigan Open Carry president Tom Lambert said the ruling was expected.

“We felt the law was very clear. The judge obviously felt it was very clear, which is why he came out with such a strong ruling so soon in the process,” he said.

Herman told the Flint Journal after the ruling that he hopes it convinces school board members to “stop burning through tax dollars fighting the law and common sense.”

Dean Greenblatt, another attorney for the plaintiffs, said Lambert’s ruling highlights the fact that changes to weapons laws are “decided at the state level,” according to the Free Press.

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“It’s not for unelected library boards or school district boards to make those types of decisions,” he said. “They don’t have the authority to do it.”

Clio superintendent Fletcher Spears told the news site “the Legislature needs to step up and get the focus on education, and not on some guy who wants to carry a gun in a school.”

“Open carry does not have a place in the schools,” he said.

Other superintendents expressed a similar sentiment, and at least one said he’ll only comply with the most minimal requirements of the law.

Rockford superintendent Mike Shibler told WOOD TV the district installed $11 million worth of security measures at district schools, including bullet-proof glass vestibules where parents and other visitors much check in.

He said school officials will not allow anyone with a weapon beyond the vestibules.

“We’re going to ask that person, ‘Please leave the building and put the gun in the glove compartment of your car and then you can come back in,’” Shibler said.

“They’re in the building,” he said. “They’re in the vestibule. We’re not denying them access to the building, but we’re saying you’re not going to go any farther than that.”

Michigan Open Carry vowed to defend against the district’s appeal.