Public school educators have plenty on their plates these days. Not only are they expected to offer sound academics in a wide variety of subjects, but they are also required to deal with a range of vexing behavioral and social issues such as bullying, harassment, drug abuse and racial tension. One thing they should not have to worry about is the danger posed by the presence of firearms on school property. In New Hampshire, they apparently do.

But, you say, doesn’t federal law already cover this? Indeed it does. As staff writer Jordan Cuddemi has reported, the federal Gun-Free School Zones Act makes it illegal, with limited exceptions, to possess a firearm in a school or within 1,000 feet of one. However, New Hampshire has no comparable prohibition on the books and, according to the state Attorney General’s office, local and state police have no authority to enforce federal laws. (Vermont, on the other hand, long ago enacted a law making it a crime to possess a firearm or any other deadly weapon in a school building, on a school bus or on school property.)

To their great credit, officials of the Rivendell Interstate School District, which operates schools in both states, have stepped up to address the issue, both locally and in the New Hampshire Legislature. They will need the courage of their convictions, given the wrath they likely will incur from Second Amendment absolutists, but this is a battle well worth fighting and other districts ought to enlist.

The Rivendell School Board is considering a policy mandating that only uniformed officers provide security at after-school events. This was sparked by a situation that developed in March when, to the surprise of school officials, state Rep. David Binford, R-Orford, who coaches softball at the school, showed up at a Rivendell Academy basketball game carrying a holstered sidearm and wearing a tactical vest after having been asked to help out with security. Binford, a military veteran who says he has extensive firearms training, noted that he was complying with the law in all respects when he did so.

This fact, combined with the abolition earlier this year of the state permit requirement for carrying concealed firearms, led Rivendell school leaders to inquire further into the situation and to their surprising discovery that New Hampshire law does not prohibit adults who legally own guns from bringing them onto school property, although Rivendell students are prohibited by policy from doing so. Dean of Students Michael Galli told Cuddemi back in March that he would seek to have the Legislature pass a law similar to Vermont’s. “I think these legislators are rational and reasonable folks,” he said at the time. “I have confidence that they will take this as a serious issue.”

That confidence has since been shaken. Galli subsequently met with Senate Majority Leader Jeb Bradley, who promised to look into the situation and get back to him. Which he didn’t. When Cuddemi inquired, Bradley’s office brushed off the issue, saying it was not a matter for state regulation but rather one for individual local school boards. 

To the contrary, the safety of public school students and staff should be among the state’s highest priorities, and the Legislature ought to give local law enforcement the tools they need to ensure it. Emotions sometimes run high in school contexts. No teacher ought to be expected to meet with an angry parent who might be carrying a concealed firearm; no athletic event or other competitive activity should take place in the presence of armed adults; no children should be endangered by the inadvertent mishandling of a firearm. While the possibilities of addressing this legal deficiency at the local level should be fully explored, it ought ultimately to be remedied by the Legislature. State Sen. Martha Hennessey, D-Hanover, has agreed to sponsor a bill in next year’s legislative session to do so, and it ought to be enacted swiftly.