The Warren Township High School District 121 Board of Education Tuesday approved a resolution calling for stricter gun control nationwide and across the state, as well as discussed its plans for improving the district’s security.
The board was set to approve the gun violence resolution at its Oct. 25 meeting, but decided to delay the decision because the board had not yet gotten feedback about it from the Gurnee police department.
Since that meeting, the board updated the resolution, changing the terms “semi-automatic” and “large capacity ammunition cartridges” to “assault weapons” and “assault weapon attachments.”
The resolution said there had been more than 375 school shootings in the U.S. since 2000, including 50 during the 2021-2022 school year. In the measure, the district calls on Congress, as well as the state of Illinois, to “ban the manufacture, purchase, sale, possession, and use of all assault weapons, assault weapons attachments, and body armor, except as needed by military and law enforcement.”
The resolution also calls for stronger background checks, no immunity to liability for the manufacturers and sellers of firearms and to raise the firearm legal purchase age in the state, and federally, to 21, among other measures.
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While not discussed during the meeting, the board’s agenda said that in the future the board might consider prioritizing several points from the resolution. One the district might highlight is that it is “vehemently opposed to arming teachers and staff in schools.”
During the meeting, the district’s associate superintendent of student services Patrick Keeley spoke about what was being done to enhance the district’s security systems.
He said that the district will work closely with the police department on security modifications and professional development, and they will be testing notification systems more often.
The district has previously met with school safety expert Ken Trump, and he shared feedback with the district on how it can improve its own security. The district is planning to meet with Trump again to have him reassess the school’s security procedures in the coming months.
“One of the things was our relocation plan,” Keeley said. “He recommended that we strengthen that, and change and modify some things. That was something that was in the works, and then COVID happened, so it kind of fell off.
“We have finalized that, and I feel like we’re in really good shape,” he added. “I’m looking forward to him coming back so he can look at the work we’ve completed in that area.”