‘Guardians’ With Guns To Be In Utah Schools Soon

It's a law now, so get ready for your kids to go to schools that are watched over by Guardians -- with guns.

House Bill 84 was passed in the Utah State Legislature and soon every school in the state will have two armed and trained volunteer "Guardians" who will be tasked with keeping the school safe.

"(HB84) provides an opportunity -- well, actually, a requirement by law -- that every school will have two Guardians that are armed," Washington County School District spokesman Steve Dunham said on the Andy Griffin Show. "They cannot be a teacher or an administrator. It can a bus driver, it can be a secretary, it can be a lunch worker, it can be a custodian.

"It provides an opportunity for specific training for them on how to respond and provide a layer of defense before law enforcement can arrive in the event of an emergency. It's about providing safety for your children with people that are trained."

If enough employees are not interested in becoming a Guardian, Dunham said the WCSD will open the program up to volunteers from outside of the district's employee pool.

Dunham said the armed Guardians would go through three levels of training:

1. Concealed Carry Permit training
2. Psychological testing and training
3. Physical and physiological training

"Our county is really doing it right by working with the Sheriff's Department -- Sgt. Kilpack has been named as the County Security Chief," Dunham said. "They are looking at this saying 'Hey, House Bill 84 says they need to be trained to a specific level, but we want to train to a much higher level; because we want to ensure that these people are ready, confident and prepared to address an incident if it were to happen in our community."

The law goes into effect in one year -- August of 2025 -- but Dunham said Washington County wants to lead out in having the Guardians ready to go.

"It's about providing a safe environment for these children."

High schools already have a School Resource Officer -- a policeman -- on campus, but the law would require all schools to have two Guardians. Dunham said the SRO would likely count as one of the two.

The unlikely, but possible event of a school shooter in a Utah school weighed heavily on lawmakers' minds this past session, especially with the abysmal performance by law enforcement in Uvalde, Tex., during a school shooting incident there.

There were also a spate of school shooting hoaxes last year.

That's probably why the bill passed easily. Dunham said the law is going into effect, whether school districts are ready or not and the WCSD wants to make sure it is ready.

"As our old superintendent Larry Bergeson used to say, we'd rather make dust than eat dust," Dunham said.

"The training is critical," Dunham said. "It's about more people. better trained to respond for the safety of our students. We want to make sure our schools are not an easy target -- not a soft target."

Guardians will likely receive a one-time stipend to help pay for purchase and upkeep of firearms, but the job of Guardian -- at least at first -- will be volunteer (unpaid).

Even so, Dunham said he expects there will plenty of people interested in becoming a Guardian. He also said if the public's help is needed, he will send out a plea for help in the near future.

The new requirement would include all 53 public, charter and private schools in Washington County.