The arguably most hapless and unpopular member of the Trump administration (and that's saying something!) came into her office with probably the most embarrassing confirmation hearing performance ever. Remember the infamous grizzly bear moment for Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos? Arming teachers, she argued, made sense in places like Park County, Wyoming, because grizzly bears. It didn't make sense. The Park County school district affirmed that, even as they moved forward with arming teachers. But not because of the bears.
The 4-2 vote by the Park County School District No. 6 board in the town of Cody near Yellowstone National Park came after more than six months of discussion and debate. Under the proposed policy, school employees would need to have at least 24 hours of initial firearms training and annual recertification to carry concealed guns at school. […]
"Unfortunately we have people in our country who want to cause harm to students and at some point you have to respond to that threat. And that's what this board decided to do with the policy they adopted," said Superintendent Ray Schulte. […]
DeVos' comments did not come up during Tuesday night's discussion, according to a reporter for The Cody Enterprise.
"It doesn't have anything to do with grizzly bears," Schulte said. "It has to do with the Wyoming Legislature."
That would be a reference to the legislature passing a bill last year allowing school districts to decide if they wanted to allow teachers and staff to carry concealed weapons at school. The idea wasn't resoundingly popular even in this Wyoming district. "'I think people are really entrenched,' said Yancy Bonner, an opponent of arming teachers who said she may remove her fifth-grade daughter from the school district." Bonner continued that she has nothing against guns, "I mean, we hunt—my whole family hunts. We have guns in our house. I just feel that there are better ways to keep our teachers safe," Bonner said.