By Victor Skinner
EAGnews.org
    
PIERRE, N.D. – Some South Dakota teachers will soon be allowed to carry guns to school to protect themselves and their students under a new “school sentinel program” approved by the legislature and signed by the governor last week.
    
The legislation gives local school boards the ability to create programs that utilize sheriff’s officials to provide firearms training to teachers who want to carry their guns to school. South Dakota is the first state to pass a law allowing teachers to carry guns to class since the tragic school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut in December, the Christian Science Monitor reports.
    
Supporters of the measure contend the Newtown massacre, in which a gunman killed 20 children and six teachers, demonstrated the need to take action, and the law is a necessity for rural school districts with longer emergency response times, the Christian Science Monitor reports.
    
“There are plenty of school districts that let us know that they’ve wanted this, and they’ve wanted this kind of provision for quite some time,” state Rep. Scott Craig told the news site, adding that he began developing the legislation before the Newtown tragedy.
    
The new law does not force school boards to implement the program. But if five percent of registered voters in a school district want to launch the program, they can file a petition with school board members to force an election on the issue.
    
Leaders of the nation’s teachers unions have already staked their position on the anti-gun side, and refuse to acknowledge the advantages of employing armed teachers. Despite what seems like overwhelming evidence, union bosses apparently don’t understand that strict gun-free school zones leave everyone on campus vulnerable.
    
“Under no circumstances do we think guns are appropriate for schools and we continue to reject the notion that when teachers carry guns, schools are safer,” American Federation of Teachers spokesman Janet Bass told the Monitor. “We don’t think teachers are going to be packing heat on the holsters during math class. There’s a real risk that a kid could grab a gun.”
    
The Monitor reports that 18 states allow firearms on school grounds, but only Utah allows teachers with concealed weapon permits to carry guns to class. Since the massacre at Sand Hook Elementary in Newtown, numerous states have considered arming teachers but South Dakota is the first state to approve legislation to do so.