Meeting to be held in Planada about allowing school district members to carry firearms on campus

PLANDA, Calif. (KFSN) -- The Planada School District could be one step closer to allowing administrators to carry guns on campus. The district in the tiny community near Merced will hold a meeting Wednesday night at Cesar Chavez Middle School to give parents more information on the matter.

"It's real-- our children are in these classrooms. And then you start to place yourself in those scenarios. What if there was an active shooter situation," said Jose Gonzalez, Superintendent.

Gonzalez said the idea is to explore all options when it comes to the safety of the 800 kids in the district.

If a conceal and carry policy was adopted armed staff members would go through extensive training and psychological assessment

"I have reached out to our Sheriff, because if he wasn't going to support issuing CCW's then it would be a moot point," said Gonzalez.

"The only way you can defend yourself from an armed intruder is to be armed. And the unfortunate fact is when you have one deputy patrolling two or three communities like Planada or Le Grand and the outskirts are, sometimes the response time is going to be low," said Vern Warnke, Sheriff.

Planada would join four other school districts in the state that allow concealed firearms on campus-- including Kingsburg.

"I wish we could focus on our English language, arts adoption, math adoptions, instruction, the development of the whole child with arts, music, but this is our new norm. Not only in our society but in our schools as well," said Gonzalez.

A decision won't likely be made until early spring and if it does get adopted the new concealed and carry plan could go into effect for the 2018/2019 school year at the earliest.