The schools have reversed their plan to let staff members carry firearms as they would have lost coverage.
Two schools in Iowa had planned to let their staff members carry firearms but have now reversed that decision because they risked losing their insurance policy.
Letters have been sent to the parents of the students in the schools explaining the reversal to parents.
The Spirit Lake and Cherokee Community School Districts issued letters to the parents of their students explaining why they have decided not to follow through with their original firearms policy decision. The Spirit Lake letter said that EMC, its insurer, had sent a warning to the district last October, saying that there was a risk that the insurance policy coverage could be lost due to their intentions to arm staff members.
The Spirit Lake staff members began carrying guns in February 2023. In March, EMC warned the district that it could now lose some of their coverage, face higher deductibles, or experience increased rates upon renewal time.
EMC issued a non-renewal notice to the school district in May, explaining that the district’s gun policy didn’t meet “underwriting guidelines.” As a result, the district was too much of a financial risk to cover and the insurer did not intend to continue the insurance policy.
Instead of losing their insurance policy, the district chose to reverse its staff firearm rules.
Iowa Rep. John Wills (R-Spirit Lake) accused EMC of attempting to decide the rules for the district.
“They’re not giving us a fiduciary reason for dropping the insurance, they just dropped it, and it appears that they dropped the insurance because of social reasons,” said Wills.
That said, Democrats pointed out that it is within the right of private companies to decline business should the choose to do so.
“They didn’t change anything, what changed was the school, and so you know they were well within their rights to deny the insurance,” said State Rep. Amy Nielsen (D)
According to EMC, the decision not to renew the insurance policy had nothing to do with any change in the way the insurer does business. They simply don’t provide coverage for civilians with guns.
