Reading, Writing, Revolvers

[October 10th, 2007]

If lyrics like Marilyn Manson’s “He will deflower the freshest crop/ Dry up all the wombs with his rock-’n’-roll sores” could turn disaffected teens into cold-hearted killers, let’s hope gun-toting teachers and coaches in Portland Public Schools have never listened to Manson’s “Antichrist Superstar.”

WW has confirmed that at least four Portland Public Schools educators are licensed by Multnomah County to carry concealed handguns.

And while there is no evidence to suggest any of them has ever brought their guns to school, it’s not entirely clear whether the law prohibits them from doing so.

The Portland school district’s policy explicitly bans weapons of all kinds on school campuses. But that rubs up against state law that makes an exception for adults over 21 with concealed handgun permits.

The question is ripe because on Thursday, Oct. 11, a southwest Oregon teacher will begin her court challenge to a ban, similar to Portland’s, in the Medford School District. In the process, she could be setting the stage for a statewide policy that clears up confusion over teachers and guns in schools.

“It’s a safety issue for schools,” says Shannon Priem, a spokeswoman for the Oregon School Boards Association, which favors letting individual districts enforce weapons bans if they want. “Once you’ve got a gun inside a school, who’s to say where the gun ends up?”

This week’s oral arguments in the Jackson County case will determine whether English teacher Shirley Katz can carry a concealed handgun on the campus of South Medford High School. Katz says she wants the gun to protect herself from her ex-husband, according to court documents filed by her attorney, Jim Leuenberger. (In previous news accounts, Katz’s former husband has denied posing a threat.)

Katz’s employer, the Medford School District, says the teacher cannot bring her gun to school.

Yet Oregon law says she can.

The initial findings in Katz’s lawsuit will apply only to Jackson County. But the ramifications could spread, if the case is appealed in statewide court where a ruling would cover all school districts in Oregon.

Almost 275 miles to the north, Multnomah County has more than 10,000 adults with concealed handgun permits, according to the county sheriff’s department, which issues the licenses. That’s about 2 percent of the population old enough to apply for them.

A WW review of those records reveals 35 possible matches with the list of coaches, educational assistants, paraeducators and teachers working in Portland Public Schools. That’s less than 1 percent of the approximately 3,700 educators in the school district. Of those 35, WW confirmed that four license holders are in fact employed by Portland Public Schools.

Like Medford, Portland Public Schools goes further than state law to prohibit weapons of all kinds on campus. The Portland school district’s policy is that only law-enforcement officials can carry weapons on school grounds.

“Our employees know that,” says district spokesman Matt Shelby. “No one has challenged our policy, that I know of.”

Students have, however. During the 2005-06 school year, the last available data, two students were expelled for bringing guns to campus.

According to public records, PPS employees with concealed-weapon permits include Sherry Dahlen, a teacher at Bridger Elementary School in outer Southeast Portland; Kevin Mackey, a paraeducator with the school district; Virginia Knox, a first-grade teacher at the Sabin school in Northeast; and Bernadine Clay, a teacher at a school she refused to identify.

“I don’t have any comment,” Dahlen says, adding only that she would never bring a gun to work. Clay declined to discuss the issue at all.

Mackey, who also says he would never carry his handgun to school, did say he thought the Medford teacher should be allowed to do so.

“It is her right,” he says.

For her part, Knox says: “I’ve never felt the slightest inclination to take a gun to school.”