The Oak Park and River Forest High School Board of Education approved a secure firearm storage policy committing the high school to provide information to parents and guardians about the importance of secure storage.
The policy was unanimously approved during Thursday night’s meeting.
The new policy states that information on secure storage, along with informing parents and guardians of their legal obligations to protect others from unsafe guns, “shall be affirmatively provided in the manner or manners” up to the superintendent’s discretion.
This can include through the student handbook, when students are being registered for school and through other manners of “appropriate annual communication.”
As part of the new policy, the district will be consulting with public health experts and gun safety experts along with other stakeholders. Information on secure gun storage should also be easily found on the district’s website.
Tom Cofsky, board president, said the policy aligned with the goal of the board and others in the community, adding that it seemed to be “common sense in trying to help protect” students.
Secure firearm storage policies have recently been passed at other local organizations, including the Village of Oak Park, which passed an ordinance regarding safe storage in July 2023.
The ordinance states that it is required that all firearms in the village be stored in a locking device. No one besides the authorized person can have access to the key or combination for the locking device.
Firearms left unattended in a vehicle in sight are also not considered secure.
Earlier this year, Oak Park Elementary School District 97 also approved a gun-storage education policy.
In February, the policy was unanimously approved.
“We stand with our families, community members and agency partners in collective efforts to increase safety in Oak Park,” said Supt. Ushma Shah.
“This board policy introduces a new component to our holistic approach to school safety, which is annually using our district channels to raise awareness about secure gun storage as an important public health issue.”
At both Oak Park districts, local community members urged boards of education to adopt of a policy.
Jenna Leving Jacobson, local Moms Demand Action member, had been advocating for firearm storage policies at both districts.
Now that both school boards have committed their support, Leving Jacobson said the organization is very happy the policy was passed and expressed the need that the community had following the events at the high school on Feb. 14.
Cofsky said that the incident that occurred last year where a student was apprehended near campus with a gun played a bigger role in supporting this policy.
“That could have been a very serious situation,” he said.
Cofsky added that the school safety and security emerged as a “critical focus area” during the board’s goal setting retreat and the “collective voice” from the community who urged the district to speak about home gun storage.
According to a 2019 report called “U.S. secret service analysis of targeted school violence” from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s National Threat Assessment Center, 76% of school shootings are committed with guns from the home.
“In his Superintendent’s report at the beginning of the meeting, Dr. Johnson described the ‘secure and teach’ lockdown on Feb. 14,” said Leving Jacobson. “It was upsetting to remember the fear and anxiety of that day, but important to connect it to the very reason for a policy that requires the D200 administration to share information with families about secure firearm storage.”
