The Topeka Capital-Journal<\/a>
\nJune 19, 2013<\/p>\nAllowing teachers and other employees to carry guns under a new state law would cost most school districts their insurance.<\/p>\n
EMC Insurance Companies, the state\u2019s main insurer of schools, won\u2019t insure districts with armed employees under the new law, which takes effect July 1. Districts already insured by EMC wouldn\u2019t have their policies renewed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe understand that school districts have every right to decide which way they want to go,\u201d Bernie Zalaznik, EMC\u2019s resident vice president in Wichita, said Monday. \u201cBut we have to make the decision based on what we perceive to be our best financial interest.\u201d<\/p>\n
EMC, which Zalaznik estimated insures about 90 percent of Kansas\u2019 286 school districts, has issued a letter to its agents around the state, explaining that concealed carry would pose too great a risk.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are making this underwriting decision simply to protect the financial security of our company,\u201d said the May 15 letter, which can be viewed in full on The Topeka Capital-Journal\u2019s website.<\/p>\n
Zalaznik and the Kansas Association of School Boards said some school districts have been showing interest in letting employees carry firearms. Currently, only law enforcement officers can carry guns on school property.<\/p>\n
Zalaznik said he had heard directly from or indirectly of about five or six districts seeking information on allowing guns in schools. David Shriver, director of the school board association\u2019s insurance program, said about a dozen districts around the state, mostly small ones, had called and expressed interest.<\/p>\n
The school board association is advising all districts against taking advantage of the new law.<\/p>\n
Shriver said two other insurers of districts, Wright Specialty Insurance and Continental Western Group, also have decided either not to cover liabilities related to concealed firearms or not to insure such districts at all.<\/p>\n
When contacted, Continental Western declined to comment. The Capital-Journal is seeking confirmation from Wright Speciality.<\/p>\n
The new law lets school boards designate employees who can bring guns to school. The employees must have valid concealed-carry permits.<\/p>\n
No districts in Shawnee County have plans to let employees carry guns.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe haven\u2019t discussed it,\u201d Tim Hallacy, Silver Lake Unified School District 372 superintendent, said Monday. \u201cI don\u2019t see that as being a discussion point, and personally I\u2019m not very interested.\u201d<\/p>\n
Julie Ford, superintendent of Topeka USD 501, said the district would continue to entrust its security to its police department.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have 20 police officers on any day that are in Topeka schools,\u201d Ford said.<\/p>\n
Shawnee Heights USD 450, Auburn-Washburn USD 437 and Seaman USD 345 also said allowing concealed carry wasn\u2019t on their agendas.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur administration and school police department feel very strongly about this,\u201d Seaman communications director Jeff Zehnder said.<\/p>\n
Seaman has four police officers patrolling its buildings, Auburn-Washburn has one, Shawnee Heights has two, and Silver Lake shares an officer with Rossville USD 321.<\/p>\n
EMC insures two districts in Shawnee County: Shawnee Heights and Silver Lake.<\/p>\n
Unless school boards take action to allow staff members to have guns, firearms will continue to be banned on their properties except when carried by police officers.<\/p>\n
Still, at least one school district, Wichita USD 259, may pass a policy to make clear that concealed carry isn\u2019t allowed. The potential policy \u201cprohibits everyone from possessing firearms in district buildings, provides for disciplining employees for possession of any firearm and requires signage at all entrances to district buildings as approved by the Kansas attorney general,\u201d a USD 259 school board agenda says.<\/p>\n
The board was scheduled to discuss the matter Monday, but hasn\u2019t voted yet.<\/p>\n
Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Topeka Capital-Journal June 19, 2013 Allowing teachers and other employees to carry guns under a new state law would cost most school districts their insurance. EMC Insurance Companies, the state\u2019s main insurer of schools, won\u2019t insure districts with armed employees under the new law, which takes effect July 1. Districts already insured by EMC […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-43467","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-breaking-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43467\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}