Thursday, Jan. 28, 2021 | 9:12 p.m.
The Clark County School Board voted down a resolution on Thursday that would have allowed the Clark County School District to send parents communications regarding safe gun storage.
The proposal would require parents to sign the “safe storage of firearms in the home” document to acknowledge having read it. It would have been distributed at the beginning of the school year with registration material.
The resolution, which failed on a 4-3 vote, was considered partially because of an increase in suicides throughout CCSD during the pandemic, in which at least a dozen students died from July 1 to Dec. 31 of last year.
“With children being at home from school during this pandemic, and gun sales surging, secure gun ownership is more important than ever,” said Tick Segerblom, the Clark County Commissioner who urged the board to pass the resolution.
School Board members Lola Brooks, Irene Cepeda, Evelyn Garcia Morales and Katie Williams opposed the resolution. Danielle Ford, Linda Cavazos and Lisa Guzman voted in support.
If CCSD can send home paperwork warning parents about peanut allergies, they should be able send home documents informing parents about state gun laws, said Cavazos, who is the School Board president.
But if the district is going to advise parents how to store their guns, they might as well warn them to “hide their belts, shoelaces and prescription drugs,” because suicides also occur by hangings and overdoses, board member Katie Williams said.
An estimated 4.6 million American children live in houses with one loaded, unlocked gun, the resolution said. Nearly 350 children under the age of 18 unintentionally shoot themselves or someone else every year.
Metro Police handled 13 calls in 2020 involving juveniles who were injured or killed because they had access to firearms that were not properly secured, wrote Chuck Callaway, director of the Metro’s Office of Intergovernmental Service.
The Nevada Parent and Teachers Association was against parents having to sign an acknowledgment form about gun safety awareness during registration, n association president Rebecca Garcia said.
A public comment from Rachel Hughes said the idea that parents would have to sign a form was “ridiculous, superficial and meaningless” and “an insult to responsible gun owners.”
And parent Andy McDonald wrote the School Board saying it was not the place of CCSD to determine how he should store his firearms or who in his home has access.
“It is my job as a parent to teach my child firearm safety and how and when to properly handle the firearms in my home. I want CCSD to keep doing what is their job and that is to educate my child, not drive an agenda,” McDonald wrote.
Kelly Grimm, a parent of two high school students, expressed support for the resolution.
“This resolution will allow all CCSD parents, gun owners and non-gun owners alike, to learn about the tragedy of preventable child gun deaths,” Grimm said.
Garcia Morales suggested revisiting the issue in the summer.
