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Blackhawk Technical College might add pepper spray to weapons ban

ROCK TOWNSHIP — As Blackhawk Technical College works to produce a policy that complies with Wisconsin’s new concealed-carry law, it has added a twist that the law doesn’t address: pepper spray.

The BTC Board took a look at a policy proposal Wednesday that would ban from BTC buildings all explosives, swords, bows and arrows, tasers, batons and O.C. (pepper) spray.

Several female BTC students questioned Thursday were split on the question, although all agreed the main campus between Janesville and Beloit is generally safe.

“I wouldn’t want to carry it. I feel perfectly safe here,” said Vicki Ball of Clinton, who is studying legal administration. “I can’t think of any situation where I would need it.”

“At night, they have the Safe Walk program, so someone can walk you to your car,” said Jennifer Nevestich of Milton, who is studying criminal justice.

The Safe Walk program uses volunteers who are studying criminal justice.

Criminal justice student Nicole Cola of Milton said she’d like to be able to carry pepper spray.

Cola is aware of Safe Walk, but “they’re never really around” when she gets done with classes at 9 p.m., she said.

Mae Brown of Beloit said some areas of the parking lot are dark, so she’d like the option of carrying the spray.

“I think it’s a personal choice that no one should be denied,” said Brown, who is studying early-childhood education.

“I’d rather carry pepper spray than a concealed gun,” Brown added.

Renea Ranguette, BTC vice president for finance and operations, expressed surprise that Safe Walk officers might not be available. She said the service should be available until 10 p.m., when the campus shuts down. She said she would look into the matter.

Students can get an escort by going to the reception desk until 9 p.m. or by calling a phone number, Ranguette said.

Safe Walk is “much safer than carrying pepper spray,” Ranguette said, but the issue of pepper spray is one of several in the policy that the administration is considering revising.

A completed weapons policy could be approved at the board’s meeting Wednesday, Oct. 26, Ranguette said.

Ranguette wasn’t sure where the pepper spray idea came from, but she said that because the campus has not had a weapons policy, officials wanted to cover the issue more broadly than what is addressed in the concealed-carry law. The law goes into effect Nov. 1.

Current law bans firearms from college campuses. The new law allows weapons in campus buildings unless the college bans weapons and posts signs at all building entrances. BTC will likely post signs at its buildings, said BTC President Tom Eckert.

Eckert thought the cost of signs would be “negligible.”

Weapons can’t be banned from parking lots, however, so students for the first time will be able to keep weapons in their cars. BTC is considering a policy that would cover the question of whether weapons should be visible in cars, Eckert said.

BTC’s proposed policy includes an exemption for weapons carried by law enforcement or used in classes. The campus has an indoor firearms range. It also recently announced it will offer classes to help people earn the license needed for concealed carry.

UW-Rock County in Janesville, meanwhile, has not yet set its policy. Spokeswoman Carrie Hermanson noted that the Janesville Academy for International Studies, a Janesville charter school, moved to the campus this year. The new law retains a ban on weapons within 1,000 feet of kindergarten-through-12th-grade schools, so UW-Rock might be covered by that, Hermanson said.

UW System spokesman David Giroux said the heads of all UW campuses have indicated they will post signs to ban weapons from their buildings. Giroux had not heard any talk about pepper spray.

Giroux noted that Nov. 1 is the earliest anyone could even apply for a concealed carry permit. A campus could enact a gun ban in its buildings at any time after Nov. 1, he said.