Rural remote Washington school district holding meeting to discuss arming staff members

A rural school district in Washington is holding a public meeting tonight to discuss arming educators and administrators in Naches Valley School District, Rafael Guerrero reports for the Yakima Herald. Superintendent Duane Lyons, who said the ultimate goal "would be to keep students and staff safe in case of an emergency," told Guerrero, “Should we allow some of our employees to be trained and armed? We don’t have the answer to that yet. But we hope to have that discussion with the community and staff.” Naches (Best Places map) has about 800 residents.

The Kiona-Benton City School District, located about 80 miles from Naches in Kiona, last year approved a policy "to allow some administrators to carry," Guerrero writes. "In December, Lyons and three school board members met with Toppenish Superintendent John Cerna over the Lower Valley school district’s well-known firearms policy." Cerna, who said it make sense that Naches officials would be curious about his district's policy because of its remote location, told Guerrero, “Naches is way out there, so their response time is probably 20 to 30 minutes. For them it’s probably even more critical.” (Read more)