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My wife is doing her CHL renewal, and...

She was just told that Sentae Bill 321 makes it illegal for a school district employee to have a gun in there vehicle on school grounds unless they have express writting permission from the district.

I just re-read the bill, and while there is no question that schools are exempted from the requirement, I still believe employees are allowed to carry unless told otherwise?

Am I missing something?

Thanks!

You're right. It's legal by default and a 30.06 sign has no weight unless it's a private school. However, employees can be fired and students can be expelled.

dweyant wrote:My wife is doing her CHL renewal, and...

She was just told that Sentae Bill 321 makes it illegal for a school district employee to have a gun in there vehicle on school grounds unless they have express writting permission from the district.

I just re-read the bill, and while there is no question that schools are exempted from the requirement, I still believe employees are allowed to carry unless told otherwise?

Am I missing something?

Thanks!

As previous poster said, it's not illegal, but keep in mind just about every school district has policies that prohibit weapons on the property by both students and staff. Many districts periodically use dogs to sniff out guns and drugs in the cars in the parking lot. It could be a quick way of getting fired if they find out.

Brian

Your wife should do two things. First, she should read her actual contract, be it a one year term or continuing. Read it thoroughly and determine if there is any language specific to arms on the property. Most do not. Second, find a copy of the district's policies and procedures. It can probably be found on line. Hopefully it is searchable. You are going to find language regarding students having weapons on campus and how they are going to deal with them. Not relevant. Look for any language that spells out any prohibition against the possession of firearms by employees. If you find nothing within the written district policies, then there is in fact no prohibition and she should just put it away in the center console and not bring up the topic amongst other employees. The administration does not always read the rules as we know and someone can go nuts and make a big stink of it, but in the end nothing can be done. Just tell her to keep it under her hat so to speak.

I had a similar discussion with a department head who was adamant that the district had rules that covered this, as well as state laws. He got a little steamed with me. I have that affect on people, but in the end I showed him the relevant state law and asked him to quote to me the state law he was referring to as well as the local district policy number. None existed, and he hushed up after he did the research. He hates to be wrong.

...I would not counsel any employee to butt heads with their employer about this issue...much less a school district...rather know the law, know what the employee's manual or contract says, make your decisions based on your beliefs/opinions vs. the written policies, and do what you decide to do QUIETLY and PRIVATELY within the law...choose your battles wisely, lest you win the battle and lose the war...there are many "reasons" why an employer doesn't need your services anymore...

...IF it ever becomes a problem(usually because of loose lips), you MAY have legal standing IF you haven't educated the employer to the point that they (a) correct any omissions regarding policy or (b) become aware that you're keeping a weapon in the car...and make you an example...

...my personal belief is that by carrying a well-cleaned gun concealed well in the car and keeping our lips zipped about it...we're home free a large percentage of the time...a dog shouldn't hit on it and there should be no other reason for a search...

I can never understand how an employer can feel the need to second-guess state law and bear the moral responsibility of denying employees the ability to defend themselves to and from work.

Wouldn't it be a lot easier for them to take the "Starbucks" approach?

....because given our state legislature, many people think they are smarter than those folks who were elected to do this stuff. In some cases they may be right, but then that's another discussion.

rp_photo wrote:I can never understand how an employer can feel the need to second-guess state law and bear the moral responsibility of denying employees the ability to defend themselves to and from work.

Wouldn't it be a lot easier for them to take the "Starbucks" approach?

I can easily explain it to you. I'm an ex-teacher and had to deal with the problem. There are many dedicated teachers who end up in school administrations and really have the interests of educating kids in their hearts. There are, unfortunately, many more D.Eds (doctors of education) who are so impressed by themselves that they work overtime at attempting to control anyone and everyone who is remotely under their control at every opportunity. They are unfettered by anything but school politics. Here is a great recent example (and one of the reasons that I choose not to carry on my bike rides).

Our Town has dedicated bike trails. One of those trails crosses a school bus loop around an elementary school. When I follow that trail, I'm on the bus loop portion for less than 30 seconds. If I'm unfortunate in the timing of my ride, teachers can use the bus loop to line up their classes and completely block it. On one such occasion, I elected to follow the bus loop in the opposite direction to a nearby street rather than to ride up to the assembled kids. About halfway to the street, the principal stopped me and asked me what I was doing. I told him that I had been on the bike trail but that it was blocked by kids and I was riding away from them and toward the street.

He went into a tirade about how he could not have "strange guys" riding around because a bunch of mothers would call him to complain. He acknowledged that the bike trail linked with the bus loop and how that had been an advantage but now it wasn't and he could no longer permit its use. I believe that the Town has a different view on the matter. Without any further input from me, he then launched of into how I was exercising all wrong and that by riding my bike where I was, I wasn't getting maximum benefit and that I should be doing interval training and not riding on the trail at all, that I was making a serious health mistake and that I had better rethink my approach. This all happened in less than 1 minute. Keep in mind that the Town maintains the bike path with the link to the bus loop and there are no signs that say that it cannot be used during the school day. I was obviously perspiring significantly but none of that made any difference to him. In 30 seconds, he knew what was best for me, even though I've been riding my bike for cardio for 7 years. When I taught, we called these guys control freaks. I'm sorry to report that nothing seems to have changed since I left education.

With an administrator like this, I firmly believe that the Texas laws and even school policy would not matter. They are above all of that. They can and will find a way to work their will so if detection of a gun occurs, you are at their mercy. That said, however, the likelihood of detection is probably far greater at a high school than at junior high, middle school or elementary. It may depend on the environment of the school and how many problems they have that seem to spill over from the surrounding community.