(Riverton, WY) – At the May 26th Fremont County School Board #25 Riverton meeting Tuesday night, Superintendent Dr. JoAnne Flanagan announced the potentiality for Riverton Middle and High Schools to begin teaching hunter safety certification courses as an elective class option.
“We are in the planning stages now and will have more information to share as we get further down the road,” Flanagan told County 10.
State legislation, passed in 2020, enables the game and fish commission “to work with the state superintendent of public instruction and the state board of education to provide firearm and hunter education as a voluntary physical education elective in public schools.”
Unless accompanied by a mentor, anyone born after Jan. 1, 1966, needs to carry “proof of hunter education” in the field, and this could provide that opportunity for students willing to take the course.
“School Resource Officer (SRO) Charlie Marshall is working with Game and Fish to determine what SRO staff would need to do in order to get their certification to teach the Hunter Safety Program to students who wish to participate,” Flanagan stated.
According to the Wyoming Game and Fish website:
“The first Hunter Education (HE) courses, originally called hunter safety, were designed over 50 years ago with the main purpose of reducing hunting accidents. Every state now has HE courses, with over 25 million graduates since the programs were started. A decrease in hunting accidents of well over 50% show how effective these programs have been. Hunting is statistically safer than almost all other forms of recreation.”
County 10 will provide more information on this story as it becomes available.