Following the decision by the Spirit Lake School Board allowing the school district superintendent to select a certain number of staff to carry firearms onto school property, the Greene County Schools Superintendent shares his opinion.

Superintendent Brett Abbotts describes his initial reaction when he first heard that Storm Lake School District is going in this direction following the incident in Uvalde, Texas and other mass shootings, including one in Ames where an individual was shot and killed in a church parking lot.

“I was pretty darn shocked that it was right here in Iowa. It came with a lot of kind of mixed emotions and mixed feelings about it. I understand the safety aspect, but I also understand the conflict that there would be there of arming staff members. I couldn’t imagine me being somebody to like openly carry or even concealed carry in a school. It’s such a big conflict for me, personally.”   

Abbotts says he would rather see School Resource Officers brought back into the schools.

“I think the level of safety and security that having a member of law enforcement brings substantially deter anybody who would want to do something like we hear about on the news. But also, you know, could bring a sense of safety and even community building to the students and staff that are within the building.”   

Abbotts adds state legislation changed to where there’s an increase in funding for SROs, which the pay raise would be around $7,400 extra per year.