A reader comments on the National Rifle Association’s ideas for school security:
“Let’s pretend. 100,000 schools would need 100,000 guards, preferably active police officers, who would by a conservative estimate cost at least $100,000 per year apiece in salary and benefits. That’s $10,000,000,000 to start, plus who knows how much more for the added costs of liability insurance, training, equipment, etc. Is this making any sense? Even if it did, how could we afford it? But wait, it may just be another golden opportunity for free-markets and privatization cloaked as public service to step in and save the day. The NRA could follow the TFA model to create GFA, Guards For America. Why, with just a few short weeks of specialized training, newly minted nonunion rookie guards would be ready to serve at half the cost for two years before moving on to that next rung on the career ladder. And just think of the profits that would flow to investors and those at the very top of the pyramid. Imagine that.”
Dear Diane,
As a Dutch science teacher, I have a slightly different take on what can be considered a safe school. My ideal school is one where young people can develop their full creative potential and follow their passions without being afraid to fail. A safe learning environment is nothing more than that: a place where you can make as many mistakes as are needed to learn new things. I don’t think many of my colleagues envisage it as a place with armed guards and teachers where children can be trapped in the crossfire.
I sincerely hope that many of your fellow Americans will listen to you and come to their senses.
A beautiful vision – thank you for taking us there.
Amazing that the solution to having too many guns, is more guns. We are in a Soviet era arms race now? After they sell 100,000’s of guns to school guards and teachers, Who will be left?
I believe our last arms race depended on the same ridiculous tactic. Mutually Assured Destruction or M.A.D. At least we can close gun shows without background checks. How can the NRA deny that when they claim that mental health is the problem?
I email a friend in England. England had a similar incident. I was surprised to learn that some Englishman did have pistols. These were confiscated. Using his words, “Gun crime has since spiraled out of control.”
Mexico is a smaller country and has strict gun control. In 2010 there were over 5,000 deaths due to firearms. More people are killed by furniture than by guns in the USA. There were over 5,000 ER visits due to “pillow related injuries” every year in the USA.
OK, I won’t go on the “more gun thing” any more.
The media does a very good job of advertising these tragic events and thus encourages copycats and these knee jerk solutions.
I never thought about building a bomb, but the media has taught me how. Remember the bomb in NY Time’s Square where the car smoked and never exploded? The media told me how the bomb was made and why it did not go off. Information I did not want to have.
Just because people are nuts, does not mean they are stupid.
I worked for a large suburban high school and we always seemed to have 2 armed policemen in the school. Not to protect the students from outside attacks, but to protect us from the students. This is not a ghetto school
We had IDs for everyone and one designated entrance that was secured with one of more of our 25 unarmed para-pros. Their job was to help the police monitor the building long before Columbine. Many students refused to wear the IDs and would pocket them. No amount of “teaching” could explain how wearing an ID keeps the building safer. When the end of school bell rang, all the IDs disappeared in lockers and a stream of “friends” that never had an ID would stream into the building. Most students just had a mind set to make it easier to allow strangers into the building.
It was almost impossible to monitor the 30 or so doors into the building. Anyone banging on the door on the outside would more often than not find a student inside that would push the door open so he could enter.
It was a closed campus and students would dash out in groups for what ever reason and leave a pen in the door so they could re-enter later.
Because of fire, these doors cannot be chained.
Will more guns make schools safe? I doubt it in my situation.
I learned how to shoot, just to be one of the guys, using guns owned by other people. Not a favorite activity for me.
Seeing how things are going, I just purchased one. It is ready with a loaded clip and the original sale stickers are still on the unfired gun. It is locked in a safe screwed to the floor. This gun has never had a live round in the chamber. I have it just in case, because things are so scary these days.
I have spoken with my co-administrator and voiced my opinion that I choose NOT to get caught up I all of this talk about MORE guns in schools. I don’t think that is the answer. We walked around our campus and identify problem areas that need our attention. I Don’t want our campus to become like a prison. Our students deserve a safe campus, but not one that so restricts their movement that they become imprisoned. I don’t want guns on my campus. There is probably a greater chance of our students getting injured in their own neighborhoods than in our school. I am tired of the media peddling fear to parents so that the NRA can peddle more guns. More guns do not make us more safe. Shame on the press for taking part in this false rhetoric. I dont believe a gun in my office would keep my students safe. I don’t want guns in my school. It is that simple.
I thank your reader for bringing up the financial cost of the NRA’s proposal. Knowing that there can be no price for a child.s life, I will put out there the thought that in order to fund said proposal the price would require massive cuts coming from somewhere, say perhaps education? Art teachers, music teachers, librarians (say it isn’t so), teaching assistants, guidance councelors, social workers, school nurses, the list goes on and at what emotional cost to students coming to learn in a fortress? Will there be towers with sharp shooters on the playgrounds or will playgrounds cease to exist? Perhaps play bunkers could be erected as an alternative and additional expense. Sun light and fresh air could enhance the atmosphere. Better yet, virtual play grounds!!!! There would be no need to leave the classroom. Instead of police personnel why not military personnel?
If a perpetrator wants to get into a building, there may be little that can actually be done but preparation, preparation, preparation will be a good start on keeping our students and staff out of harm’s way. Then the real business can begin – learning.
Does the name backwater ring a bell?
Do the math – then follow the money.
Just like billions on ineffective testing, politicians need quick fixes to say they’ve accomplished something and since they do not have the courage to stand up to the NRA, they will float legislation requiring more unfunded security measures. As Radar used to say…. “Wait for it.”
Maybe Pearson and the New Records for Arrogance (or is it No Respect for Anyone) NRA will merge – imagine the possibilities.
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, there were 98,817 public schools during the 2009-2010 school year.
49.8 Million public school students in Fall 2012
http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=372
School shooting death statistics include attacks in schools, shootings at dances and events, inside schools, lured outside schools…
Approx 150 school shooting deaths in 2000-2010; Approx 200 school shooting deaths 1990-2000
http://www.k12academics.com/school-shootings/history-school-shootings-united-states
A terrorist attack is a terrorist attack and that’s what these are. Metal detectors, armed officers, and certainly armed teachers are not going to stop them or even slow them down. Again, as one police chief explained, the only way to make schools 100% safe from these attacks is Israeli airport security.
At my old school dist. all the schools are gated with access only through the office.( I just retired)
Fire alarms went off automatically because they were wired to smoke detectors.
LockDowns on the other hand had to be announced over the P.A., and then 911 had to be called.
Bank tellers have alarm buttons, why not the school office staff and admin ? Also a mic picking up a gunshot could send the call automatically.
Every school has a security system, these would be very inexpensive add-ons.
Greg
You are a voice of reason. Some of us need that right now. Besides the good suggestions – you raise the broader topic – “there’s got to be a better way”
thank you
merry x-mas!
🙂
So will the NRA set up their own line of charter schools to prove their mandate? I’m pretty sure Race to the Top will grant their request. Then they can win!
Sorry, I completely disagree with these thoughts. Yes, we need at least an armed cop in every school. Ideally, all the security personnel would be armed. Why not? I am liberal when it comes to pro unions, fair wages, etc. I agree with Dr. Ravitch on most of her stances, but not on guns. I am not liberal when it comes to understanding human nature. The main difference between liberals and conservatives has to do with viewing human nature. Liberals believe that people are by nature “good” and the few “evil” ones are sick, psychotic, etc. Conservatives rightly believe that human nature can be good or evil, and is more about choice. Vikings would throw babies into the air and skewer them on their swords. Germans in World War II killed men, women, and children by the millions. You still think humans are “good” by nature? It is time for you to go to the library. This has happened all over the world, throughout history and in every country. Maybe civilization is the thin veneer… Leaving our children unprotected is liberal crap. We need to allow people to defend themselves, their students, and their communities. By leaving schools unarmed and unprotected, we are simply telling every nutcase out there that it is safe to go attack. No one will be there to stop you. This is wrong. It is based on faulty logic, wishful thinking and ignorance of human history. Human beings (especially males) have been killers throughout recorded history. Peace has been the exception and not the rule. Gun control just stops law-abiding people from having weapons. Check out Chicago’s murder rate in the last 10 years. Chicago had the strictest gun-control laws in the country. This debate is replacing common sense with ideology. Gun control is “fluff” and I personally hate guns. It will do “nothing” to solve this problem. I don’t like the N.R.A. at all, but they are using logic and not wishful thinking like, “guns are bad.” We don’t live in Europe, and there are 300 million guns. I will insist that my local school has protection, and you should too. Wake up! I personally think that a teacher could argue that they have the right to carry a gun and defend themselves. Given the evidence, they could win a lawsuit.
The NRA statement was uninformed, grossly insensitive to children and the innocence of growing up, and flat out arrogant.
http://thinkingaboutschools-jhstlny.blogspot.com/ NRA, GUNS, CULTURE & KIDS
Jack, Oh my. “but they NRA are using logic and not wishful thinking like, ‘guns are bad.'”
And, perhaps you”ll skim the statistics in post above. 98,000 schools, 50 million students, and most of the sad and tragic shootings over the decades would not have been – were not – stopped or deterred because of an armed officer. And, arming teachers?
Think back to your teachers. Would you want them armed? How would they do confronting a crazed terrorist willing to die, wearing a flak jacket, and carrying an assult rifle that shoots how many rounds per minute.
Next? Bus drivers? There have been attacks on school buses.
Theatre managers like Aurora? Mall cops (oh, wait, they were already in malls where there were shootings).
Sorry – NRA and logic is an oxymoron.
Have you read about the NRA’s 4R’s: Reading Writing Arithmetic and Rifles http://studentslast.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-four-rs.html (Satire, but barely)
I’m sure this would be a perfect opportunity to use private security firms who must cut back as we pull back our military commitment overseas. (Halliburton?). This would be a perfect opportunity for them to suck up some more public funds. These are the guys in the black uniforms who shoot Arab civilians. We should be very afraid of continuing to fund private “militias.” And the schools would just waste that $10 billion on books or teachers or some other crazy liberal idea.