By:Jason Hancock
Missouri Independent
Missouri schools will be able to hire a new class of armed guards, and high school athletes will get a state-run avenue to appeal some eligibility and competition decisions under two bills signed Thursday by Gov. Mike Kehoe.
The education provisions in a pair of bills create “Missouri Rangers” to respond to violent threats in schools and establish an Interscholastic Athletic Oversight Commission to review certain decisions made by statewide activities associations such as the Missouri State High School Activities Association.
Supporters framed both proposals as giving families and school districts more options — either for school security or for challenging rulings that can affect student athletes. Critics warned the bills either put more guns in schools or insert state government into decisions traditionally handled by a private, school-governed association.
The Missouri Rangers program was part of a broad public safety bill. Under the legislation, the state Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission must establish the program and set minimum standards for training instructors, centers and programs focused on preventing and responding to emergency or violent crisis situations in schools.
A ranger could be paid full time, part time or serve as a volunteer. If authorized by the hiring school district, a ranger could carry a firearm or other weapon capable of lethal use inside schools, on school buses and on district property.
The bill leaves key decisions to local school districts, including whether a ranger is armed, what type of weapon the ranger carries and whether the weapon is concealed.
State Sen. David Gregory, a Chesterfield Republican who sponsored the Missouri Rangers proposal, said during debate earlier this year that he wanted schools to have “a choice to have a higher trained armed guard.”
The new ranger program would require no more than 160 hours of training, including close-quarter combat, building security and hardening, bomb and arson training, de-escalation, active shooter training, behavioral threat assessments, search-and-seizure law, firearms training, defensive tactics and abbreviated “stop the bleed” first aid training.
Applicants would have to undergo a criminal background check, including FBI records. Those ages 21 to 35 would also have to pass a physical fitness test requiring them to run 1.5 miles in less than 12 minutes and 30 seconds, complete at least four pull-ups, complete 40 pushups in less than one minute and complete 50 crunches in less than one minute. The POST Commission must create lower, age-appropriate standards for older applicants.
Democrats objected to the proposal during legislative debate, arguing that more armed personnel would not make schools safer.
“The answer to guns in schools is not more guns in schools,” state Rep. Elizabeth Fuchs, a St. Louis Democrat, said during House debate earlier this year, arguing schools need more mental health support instead.
The second bill signed by Kehoe creates a five-member Interscholastic Athletic Oversight Commission appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Senate. The commission will be housed within the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and begin hearing appeals in the 2027-28 school year.
In a statement Thursday, Kehoe said athletics and extracurricular activities help build “leadership, teamwork, and resilience” and said organizations overseeing student activities should operate with “transparency and accountability.”
“As I said in my State of the State address, unelected bureaucrats cannot act like kings, and the decisions of the Missouri State High School Activities Association should be held to a higher standard of oversight,” Kehoe said. “This commission will allow for a more transparent appeals process and ensure the taxpayers who fund MSHSAA have a say in the decisions affecting students and their futures.”
The new commission will be allowed to hear appeals after an activities association’s internal appeals process is exhausted. The bill also says appealing parties may go directly to the commission without first exhausting the association’s appeals process.
Its jurisdiction is limited to appeals related to student transfer eligibility decisions deemed to be for athletic purposes and appeals involving contests and contest procedures. The commission’s decisions will be final, and activities associations must follow them.
State Rep. Bennie Cook, a Houston Republican who handled the bill in the House, said the new process would give students and families another level of recourse before disputes end up in court.
Opponents called the bill state overreach into a private organization governed by member schools.