Unlawful School Board Policies

A few tips for understanding the difference between lawful and unlawful school board employee weapons policies and District action surrounding them:

1. It is NOT unlawful for school boards to write and publish generally prohibitive policies banning any and all weapons.
2. It IS unlawful for schools to enforce a generally prohibitive policy or move law enforcement to arrest based on such a policy that is in violation of FSS 790.33.  You can find this in State v Ragland from Florida’s 5th DCA.
3. It IS unlawful for school boards to terminate or otherwise administratively punish employees for lawful exercise of any of their constitutional rights, the 2nd Amendment included.
4. It is NOT unlawful for school boards to specifically waive the FSS 790.25(4) exception as found in FSS 790.115(2)(a)(3) for student and campus parking privileges.
5. We hold here, and it can be found in our litigation page, that as teachers do not have parking privileges pursuant to contract language, FSS 790.115(2)(a)(3) does not apply to them, and thus it is Unlawful to attempt to prohibit their lawful, constructive possession of firearms and other defensive weapons in their private conveyance, at the very least.  Some county policies already acknowledge this.  Our goal is that all 67 will in the foreseeable future.
6. It is NOT unlawful for schools to waive FSS 790.25(4) for those who utilize parking privileges but it is unlawful to abrogate possession pursuant to other statutes.
7. It IS unlawful to violate FSS 790.251.  Read the Notice of Constitutional Challenge in our Litigation page for more information.

As you read through any of the 67 school board policies and innumerable secondary institutional policies, try to remember:

”the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be abridged…”

And as you sift through endless complex “legalese” ask yourself, for the betterment of our society, could these policies not be more transparent and more an example of what a powerful, society-affirming influence our public institutions can and should be?

It is not unlawful, but morally wrong, for public institutions to promote partisan political viewpoints, like those surrounding gun control, in violation of state law and the Civil Rights of so many.

It is morally wrong to use confusing language to obscure prohibited behaviors within policies, and can be a violation of state law, especially when such policies have legal implications.