(03-21-2018, 11:37 AM)pirkster Wrote:

(03-21-2018, 11:28 AM)B2hibry Wrote: No way, no how should teachers be armed at school. Their job is to teach and they can barely do that. The idea is to minimize the issues and not to escalate. There is additional and unacceptable risk involved with arming teachers in an inherently aggressively charged environment.

State and Federal need to stop leaning towards the cheapest alternatives when it comes to school safety/security. You set a federal standard for school design and set aside funding to upgrade those legacy facilities. We have all these codes for bridges, highways, buildings, etc., why not schools as it pertains to security? There also needs to be a study to determine the proper number of armed school resource officers required per the population. If money is an issue, deputize volunteers after significant training. There are Reserve officers on the streets, why not in schools? Heck, I know several retired military that would willingly do it for a ham sandwich if it meant making the kids safer.

IMO, the better of the ideas shared is that those teachers would be allowed to apply and qualify voluntarily for that responsibility and not required to do so.

I agree that armed resources not including teachers should be a staple of any safety plan, I just feel qualified and trained volunteer teachers would make such a plan even safer.  If it's a small school without any qualified or interested participant teachers, then that's not a problem.  Armed resources would still be staffed.  I see teachers as a supplement, and not the core security force.  I would be surprised if that wasn't the intent of those who are supporting the idea as well.  Those opposing such ideas can be extremely (and purposefully) misleading and misrepresentative of the facts.

I can see it as an alternative for after-school activities perhaps, but really see it introducing more issues than help during school hours. How many times do we see in the news some teacher getting the snot beat out of them in a classroom setting? Imagine a student discovering that teacher had a sidearm in that very situation. In reality, no armed individual should be alone in an environment that thrives on a pack mentality. Also, most of these shooting take place going from the outside-in, where teachers aren't. Perhaps just arming willing and qualified administrators? What I can appreciate in all this, is that a discussion is being sparked to how best to finally address a situation that isn't new and doesn't automatically assume no guns, no knives, no bats= no problem.

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