GREELEY — A Greeley-Evans School District 6 school board member Thursday night criticized a vote that prevents him from bringing his gun to board meetings, saying it puts his life and the lives of his colleagues in danger.
By a 5-2 vote, the Greeley board agreed to hold the rest of its meetings this year at district schools and have a police officer present. Under Colorado law, guns are not allowed in schools, except when carried by law enforcement officers or licensed security agents whose sole job is to protect the school.
Board members chose from three options, picking the one that keeps their meetings gunfree until they can revise and possibly expand the prohibition on guns in schools to include other district buildings.
Brett Reese — who says he received as many as 10 death threats since he broadcast a letter attacking the Rev Martin Luther King Jr. on his radio station — said police protection may not be enough to keep a “lunatic” from attacking the board.
“As it stands now, we’d be like fish in a barrel,” Reese said. “It would be easier if each board member was allowed to carry their own personal protection device.”
Reese also said he’s confident that if he would have been armed and a member of the Bay District School Board in Florida, he could have shot and killed the man who shot at that board in December.
“It would have been easy,” Reese said. “I would have taken him down.”
The Florida assailant was hit over the head by a board member swinging her purse and then shot and killed by a security officer.
Board members said they were forced to make a decision on weapons after Reese — who until last week had a concealed-weapons permit — said he would start bringing his weapon to board meetings at the district’s administration building because of the death threats.
The administration building is not covered by the state weapons law.
Reese had been broadcasting a letter from his radio station that called King a sexual degenerate, an American-hating communist and a plagiarizer.
Reese’s concealed-carry permit was suspended by the Weld County sheriff after a competing radio station owner alleged Reese had threatened him. The station owner filed a temporary restraining order against Reese, which automatically results in a suspended weapons permit.
A hearing on the restraining order is scheduled for today.
The board considered two other options, including making no change to the board weapons policy but installing metal detectors at the administration building and hiring personnel to monitor the machines. That could have cost the district up to $210,000, said Superintendent Ranelle Lang.
The other option was to expand the state’s weapons policy and prohibit weapons at all school-related buildings, including the administration building. However, this would have likely been challenged in court, Lang said.
Reese voted against the winning option, saying it was unnecessary.
Board member Robert Stack also voted against it but for different reasons. He wanted the board to revamp its weapons policy to make a strong statement to the community.
“I do think we need to take a stand right now,” Stack said. “Safety is our top priority.”
Monte Whaley: 720-929-0907
