Disarmed Tacoma Public Schools security guards want guns back

TACOMA, Wash. -- A Washington school district took away the handguns of nine security guards before the start of the school year. Those guards now want their weapons back.

The News Tribune reports a hearing next month may decide whether the patrol guards who work for Tacoma Public Schools get their 9 mm Glocks.

Margaret Englund, the union representative for the patrol officers, who are part of the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 286, says the officers are "ready to respond at any given moment to anything that's happening at any one of the campuses. When they stripped them of that ability to provide that armed presence, we think that they really did a disservice to the community of Tacoma."

District officials say if someone has to draw a gun at a school, they want it to be a Tacoma police officer.