Let's Stop School Killings- October 03, 2006
Yesterday was the third intrusion into a school in a week resulting in loss of life. This time it was a seemingly stable thirty-something fella harboring "a grudge" and a desire to molest who barged into a one room schoolhouse in an Amish community in Penn., chased out the boys, and methodically shot the girls, execution style, after binding them. Five girls dead at last count, with more critically wounded.
What's the solution? Well, to discuss that you first have to discuss the problem. There's a lot of insane folks out there, and with more cutbacks in funding for the mentally disabled and their hospitals/treatment, that figure will only increase. Funding for mental health needs to be restored, plain and simple.
And these crazy folks have easy access to lots of guns. Doubt there's much we can do about this aspect of the problem. Guns are an ingrained part of American society. I own a few myself, mostly hunting rifles, but included is one pistol for family protection from the crazies and drug addicts out there. Never had to grab it. But the other night something happened that makes me worry about even owning it. It's a digression from my topic, but, hey, it's my blog, and I can ramble if I want to. I was doing the usual barbeque thing- I cook out a lot to help Debbie ( and it tastes better!)- around dark-thirty at night and was just shutting down the gas and collecting the cooked meat onto a platter. I'd turned to go back inside with it when a strong light shone on my face. I looked, and it was coming from 20 feet away on my deck. I saw a silhouette of a big man with a light held high and pointed at me. I said, "Can I help you?" (What else does one say under those circumstanses?) And the man said, "I just thought I'd come over here and help myself to whatever you're cookin'. Smells great!"
It was my neighbor with his "night fishing" light on his head. He was, of course, joking. He'd never steal anybody's food. He was just foolin' around. But what if I had been sitting inside watching TV and had seen his light in my backyard? Would I have reached for that pistol? I doubt it. It would probably take something more serious than that... or would it? Our community has its share of escaped felons, home invaders, and serious drug addicts that need to steal to feed their habits. OK, digression over. Sorry.
So what do we do about these school killings? We have to do a better job of guarding our schools. Ever since Columbine occurred, schools across the country have added "School Resource Officers" to their campuses. This is usually a town cop, on duty with his uniform, pistol and radio communication gear. My previous school where I taught almost always had one on duty for the 800+ student campus, including the adjacent middle school. The trouble was he was only one man to cover a lot of ground. If a loud, complaining parent came into the middle school office, he went. If a fight broke out in the high school's cafeteria, he went. But he couldn't guard every door in those buildings. Any idiot that wanted in those buildings had no problem doing so. Can we guard every door? The cost to the schools and community for hiring enough extra resource officers to do the job right would be far too high. Kids need to come and go- to the office- to the bathroom! We can't just lock the doors and then post a teacher/guard there at the end of every class to unlock the door nearest their classroom and "inspect" every person that enters.
Or can we? What would this entail? First, we'd have to remove that teacher from most extra duties- coaching, club sponsoring, etc. The extra work in maintaining security at "their" door would be enough extra work. Second, we'd have to ensure that teacher had passed a course or two in security work commensurate with the work required. Third, to really be effective we ought to strongly consider arming those teachers with a Taser gun or a discretely hidden pistol, perhaps one with the special "fingerprint recognition" technology now available- so only the registered user can use the pistol. Yep, they're expensive, but worth it. No one could steal that pistol and use it. Certification in this kind of firearms use would also be required.
Since most perimeter school doors are also "fire exits" the doors would have to be automatically locked to anyone trying to get in, but easily opened from the inside to allow egress in an emergency. These kinds of door locks have been around for 50 years. Let's utilize them.
How about those bathroom visits, trips to the office during class, etc. that entail leaving one building to enter another? Build more bathrooms. They're cheaper in the long run than paying officers to guard doors. Provide a (parent volunteer?) guardian to accompany any student to the office. Tell parents coming to pick up Johnny for a dentist visit to come a little early to get him between classes. (Frankly, I've never understood why most doctor visits can't be after school anyway!) Sacrifices have to be made to help ensure security at our schools. Combined with metal detectors through which every teacher and student must pass at the main entrance of every school, my plan of putting armed teacher-guards at every unlocked perimeter door during its use would make schools safer.
Our society is adapting to sacrifices just like these all across America. It will probably get worse in the upcoming years. Israel has been adapting to daily terrorist threats for decades. Our threats come from within as well as from the outside. There are obviously enough troubled individuals in our own country to warrant major changes in the security of our schools. What is the price of just one murdered student? We have to pay that price now before we lose more.
Yesterday was the third intrusion into a school in a week resulting in loss of life. This time it was a seemingly stable thirty-something fella harboring "a grudge" and a desire to molest who barged into a one room schoolhouse in an Amish community in Penn., chased out the boys, and methodically shot the girls, execution style, after binding them. Five girls dead at last count, with more critically wounded.
What's the solution? Well, to discuss that you first have to discuss the problem. There's a lot of insane folks out there, and with more cutbacks in funding for the mentally disabled and their hospitals/treatment, that figure will only increase. Funding for mental health needs to be restored, plain and simple.
And these crazy folks have easy access to lots of guns. Doubt there's much we can do about this aspect of the problem. Guns are an ingrained part of American society. I own a few myself, mostly hunting rifles, but included is one pistol for family protection from the crazies and drug addicts out there. Never had to grab it. But the other night something happened that makes me worry about even owning it. It's a digression from my topic, but, hey, it's my blog, and I can ramble if I want to. I was doing the usual barbeque thing- I cook out a lot to help Debbie ( and it tastes better!)- around dark-thirty at night and was just shutting down the gas and collecting the cooked meat onto a platter. I'd turned to go back inside with it when a strong light shone on my face. I looked, and it was coming from 20 feet away on my deck. I saw a silhouette of a big man with a light held high and pointed at me. I said, "Can I help you?" (What else does one say under those circumstanses?) And the man said, "I just thought I'd come over here and help myself to whatever you're cookin'. Smells great!"
It was my neighbor with his "night fishing" light on his head. He was, of course, joking. He'd never steal anybody's food. He was just foolin' around. But what if I had been sitting inside watching TV and had seen his light in my backyard? Would I have reached for that pistol? I doubt it. It would probably take something more serious than that... or would it? Our community has its share of escaped felons, home invaders, and serious drug addicts that need to steal to feed their habits. OK, digression over. Sorry.
So what do we do about these school killings? We have to do a better job of guarding our schools. Ever since Columbine occurred, schools across the country have added "School Resource Officers" to their campuses. This is usually a town cop, on duty with his uniform, pistol and radio communication gear. My previous school where I taught almost always had one on duty for the 800+ student campus, including the adjacent middle school. The trouble was he was only one man to cover a lot of ground. If a loud, complaining parent came into the middle school office, he went. If a fight broke out in the high school's cafeteria, he went. But he couldn't guard every door in those buildings. Any idiot that wanted in those buildings had no problem doing so. Can we guard every door? The cost to the schools and community for hiring enough extra resource officers to do the job right would be far too high. Kids need to come and go- to the office- to the bathroom! We can't just lock the doors and then post a teacher/guard there at the end of every class to unlock the door nearest their classroom and "inspect" every person that enters.
Or can we? What would this entail? First, we'd have to remove that teacher from most extra duties- coaching, club sponsoring, etc. The extra work in maintaining security at "their" door would be enough extra work. Second, we'd have to ensure that teacher had passed a course or two in security work commensurate with the work required. Third, to really be effective we ought to strongly consider arming those teachers with a Taser gun or a discretely hidden pistol, perhaps one with the special "fingerprint recognition" technology now available- so only the registered user can use the pistol. Yep, they're expensive, but worth it. No one could steal that pistol and use it. Certification in this kind of firearms use would also be required.
Since most perimeter school doors are also "fire exits" the doors would have to be automatically locked to anyone trying to get in, but easily opened from the inside to allow egress in an emergency. These kinds of door locks have been around for 50 years. Let's utilize them.
How about those bathroom visits, trips to the office during class, etc. that entail leaving one building to enter another? Build more bathrooms. They're cheaper in the long run than paying officers to guard doors. Provide a (parent volunteer?) guardian to accompany any student to the office. Tell parents coming to pick up Johnny for a dentist visit to come a little early to get him between classes. (Frankly, I've never understood why most doctor visits can't be after school anyway!) Sacrifices have to be made to help ensure security at our schools. Combined with metal detectors through which every teacher and student must pass at the main entrance of every school, my plan of putting armed teacher-guards at every unlocked perimeter door during its use would make schools safer.
Our society is adapting to sacrifices just like these all across America. It will probably get worse in the upcoming years. Israel has been adapting to daily terrorist threats for decades. Our threats come from within as well as from the outside. There are obviously enough troubled individuals in our own country to warrant major changes in the security of our schools. What is the price of just one murdered student? We have to pay that price now before we lose more.
ADDED Aug. 19, 2008- almost two years after I wrote the above: I just heard a brief piece on ABC morning news that entailed an interview with the superintendent of the Texas Harrold Independent School District. In the interview the superintendent said he was allowing guns to be brought to school each day by his teachers once they had completed training in their use and how to handle hostage situations. He gave two reasons for allowing guns in his school: The school was thirty minutes away from any police protection, and the school was located right next to a major highway, so it had easy access and escape for a potential shooter. Sounds like a logical decision to me. Wonder how long it will take before some governing body takes his common sense answer to this problem away from him?
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