Lawmaker: School weapon prohibition ‘irresponsible’
Students returning to class this fall in the Governor Wentworth Regional School District will see new signage reminding them that drugs, alcohol and weapons are prohibited from school grounds. And that has one state lawmaker seeing red.
Superintendent Kathy Cuddy-Egbert presented the new signs to school board members during the August board meeting and they responded approvingly. “No confusion about what it says,” one said. “Fantastic,” said another, “those look great.”
There was dissent, however, during the public comment session.
State Rep. Ed Comeau, who moved to New Hampshire with the Free State Project and was there filming the meeting, was incensed by the “no weapons” warning, despite a state law that requires a one-year expulsion for any student who brings or possesses a firearm on school property without the superintendent’s written authorization.
“That is the most irresponsible thing to stick on the outside of a school, advertising to everyone that everyone in that area is unarmed and defenseless,” he announced during the public comment session.
“Wakefield wrestled with this too,” Comeau continued. “They also have an internal policy that employees, students, et cetera, cannot have weapons, but to put that on the outside of the building is a mistake. I think you should rethink that.”
The Brookfield Republican told the board members that he had sponsored a bill “to make it a liability for anybody that posts that sign.” He said if he is re-elected he will sponsor similar legislation again, "because that’s just irresponsible.”
‘This will get the school shot up’
Comeau continued his rant on social media. “The sign does nothing to make anyone safe. It is dangerous to post this,” he wrote. “Have we not learned from the Marine recruitment center? or France? or Chicago?”
Comeau pointed out that the Gun-Free School Zones Act allows licensed gun owners to carry concealed firearms on school property. The sign, he wrote, “confuses the public and unnecessarily disarms them. People often say they are confused about these signs and disarm themselves. Even if they have a license.”
Reps. Joe Hannon (R-Lee) and John Burt (R-Goffstown) joined the fray. “Just put up a ‘no murder’ sign…problem solved!” Hannon wrote. “Silly me. Strategies brought to you by the same types who had children hide under their desks during nuclear bomb drills.”
Burt accused school officials of intentionally putting their students’ lives in danger by displaying the new sign. “This will get the school shot up. Sad they want to put children in harms way.”