"The armed school resource officer assigned to protect students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School took a defensive position outside the school and did not enter the building while the shooter was killing students and teachers inside with an AR-15 assault-style rifle, Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said Thursday."--Washington Post, Feb 22, 2018
So much for having an armed officer on duty. Human frailty, human error, call it what you will, but depending upon armed personnel, officers or teachers, to protect American School children is folly. Everyone can point to this guy and claim they would have acted differently, but would they in real life? People panic. This guy apparently did. I wouldn't want to be in his shoes from this day forward but I feel sorry for him even as I feel the urge to throttle him for not doing his job.
Let's think about this and possible ways to secure the schools. Here's my train of thought this evening. Let's incarcerate the school children and teachers.
Security for schools will require highly trained people to diligently monitor sensitive metal detectors that scan all who enter, with alarms both loud (for the school to go into shutdown mode) and silent (calling police) if a gun (or large knife) is detected. Ideally entrances would be remodeled to resemble prison entrances, with two sets of doors. The metal detector and highly trained guard would be stationed between the two sets of doors. The innermost doors will only open via a special code from the guard after she or he ascertains that the student, staff member, or visitor is unarmed. Or the guard could be inside the innermost doors, watching the metal detector through bullet-proof glass and issuing instructions to the person trying to enter, only opening this set of doors once the all clear is given by the metal detector.
Of course the outer doors need to lock once someone enters them so that an armed person won't be able to turn his weapon on the line of people waiting outside. Once the unarmed person passes through the innermost doors and they close, then the guard will, via remote, unlock the outer door to admit another person. Even this is not an foolproof method, as someone within the school could open a different exit door to admit an armed person, even if an alarm rang when that door opened (think emergency exit only). I mean, you can't lock all the doors because of the need for emergency exits. Right?!
So, imagine students and staff having to enter one at a time and pass through a metal detector. How long will it take for everyone to get inside so that classes can begin? Any guesses? Have you been on a plane flight lately and had to go through security? It takes time, especially when any metal--keys, coins, belt buckles, etc--has to be double-checked by the guard. Remove everything from your pockets, take off your belt, take off your coat, put your backpack or briefcase or purse in the tray to be scanned. Okay, you're clear. Retrieve your belongings. Beep. Inner door opens, person enters, door closes. Outer door is unlocked, next person enters. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat x hundreds, maybe thousands of times each school day. Per school.
But wait--why should someone with an urge to massacre students and teachers go through the bother of slipping in a side door (with an accomplice on the inside) or attempt to bring his weapon(s) through the security entrance when all he has to do is shoot the masses lined up outside waiting to enter the school? Someone needs to protect them. Maybe security details similar to the secret service, trained to observe anyone behaving suspiciously and check them immediately. How many of these outside security people will be needed to protect hundreds or thousands of children and staff while they wait outside for security clearance to enter their school?
And what about inclement weather--will the waiting children have to brave the elements until it is their turn to go through security inside? Will school buses have to keep children on board until it is that bus's turn to let its charges out? Will the bus drivers need to be armed in case an armed would-be killer starts shooting at the bus or forces his way inside? If so, then bus drivers will have to be as highly trained as the security guards so that they will hopefully react properly to a threat and not kill innocent children. What about children who do not ride a school bus--those who are driven to school? No letting them out to run into the school so that the driver, possibly a parent, can go to work. Oh, no. Now the drivers will have to wait until they are cleared to let their child(ren) out. How long will this take? Will children no longer be allowed to walk to school because of the risk of being shot on school grounds? Perhaps all children will have to be bused to school--no walking or being driven by a parent. How many more buses and highly trained security bus drivers will it take to accomplish this?
Won't an armed would-be killer just need to first target the people he knows or suspects will be armed--the bus drivers, any outside guards--before massacring the children before they even get inside the secure school?
Where will it all end? And why is it that school children and teachers will be penalized, treated like criminals, just so that gun enthusiasts will feel free to buy, sell, own, and open carry any type of gun they wish at any time, crying that it is their "right"? Wouldn't it be better to create a much more peaceful society for our children, free of the fear of being shot to death in school or at the mall or at a concert. Free of the sight of people openly carrying lethal weapons, weapons designed for no other purpose than to kill, not knowing if they are "good guys" or "bad guys"? Free of the fear and worry and trauma created by mass shootings? Stringent gun laws, over time, will produce this desired effect.
This article in the Washington Post today impressed me when I read it after writing my own thoughts (above): Why I will never carry a gun in my classroom, by Victoria Barrett, a writer and writing teacher in Indianapolis. She writes, "...arming teachers, an idea that bubbles up after every school shooting in this country and one that President Trump expressed support for on Wednesday. But my fellow teachers and I did not enter this profession to be security guards. And if this proposal becomes a reality, we will not have safer schools. We will have confusion, possibly more tragedy and an exodus of educators at a time when our country can’t afford it... It seems clear that under any policy that arms teachers, it would be my responsibility to shoot my student dead. This creates more problems than it solves. If I miss or fail to fire, and he murders the other students, can their loved ones sue me? What if my shot ricochets and hurts or kills one of them? What if his gun turns out to be a walkie-talkie, a misidentification that happened outside my campus’s library last year, and I shoot my student dead for possession of an unusual electronic device? In these scenarios, some more outlandish than others, teachers become soldiers, and schools become liable when students aren’t protected in such circumstances as a shooting. But legal liability isn’t the reason I will never carry a firearm into a classroom. If it’s my responsibility to shoot someone to protect 25 others, I will have been drafted unwillingly into an ideological army to protect the rights of some civilians to own and operate military-style weapons. And I will not be conscripted."
Let's think about this and possible ways to secure the schools. Here's my train of thought this evening. Let's incarcerate the school children and teachers.
Security for schools will require highly trained people to diligently monitor sensitive metal detectors that scan all who enter, with alarms both loud (for the school to go into shutdown mode) and silent (calling police) if a gun (or large knife) is detected. Ideally entrances would be remodeled to resemble prison entrances, with two sets of doors. The metal detector and highly trained guard would be stationed between the two sets of doors. The innermost doors will only open via a special code from the guard after she or he ascertains that the student, staff member, or visitor is unarmed. Or the guard could be inside the innermost doors, watching the metal detector through bullet-proof glass and issuing instructions to the person trying to enter, only opening this set of doors once the all clear is given by the metal detector.
Of course the outer doors need to lock once someone enters them so that an armed person won't be able to turn his weapon on the line of people waiting outside. Once the unarmed person passes through the innermost doors and they close, then the guard will, via remote, unlock the outer door to admit another person. Even this is not an foolproof method, as someone within the school could open a different exit door to admit an armed person, even if an alarm rang when that door opened (think emergency exit only). I mean, you can't lock all the doors because of the need for emergency exits. Right?!
So, imagine students and staff having to enter one at a time and pass through a metal detector. How long will it take for everyone to get inside so that classes can begin? Any guesses? Have you been on a plane flight lately and had to go through security? It takes time, especially when any metal--keys, coins, belt buckles, etc--has to be double-checked by the guard. Remove everything from your pockets, take off your belt, take off your coat, put your backpack or briefcase or purse in the tray to be scanned. Okay, you're clear. Retrieve your belongings. Beep. Inner door opens, person enters, door closes. Outer door is unlocked, next person enters. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat x hundreds, maybe thousands of times each school day. Per school.
But wait--why should someone with an urge to massacre students and teachers go through the bother of slipping in a side door (with an accomplice on the inside) or attempt to bring his weapon(s) through the security entrance when all he has to do is shoot the masses lined up outside waiting to enter the school? Someone needs to protect them. Maybe security details similar to the secret service, trained to observe anyone behaving suspiciously and check them immediately. How many of these outside security people will be needed to protect hundreds or thousands of children and staff while they wait outside for security clearance to enter their school?
And what about inclement weather--will the waiting children have to brave the elements until it is their turn to go through security inside? Will school buses have to keep children on board until it is that bus's turn to let its charges out? Will the bus drivers need to be armed in case an armed would-be killer starts shooting at the bus or forces his way inside? If so, then bus drivers will have to be as highly trained as the security guards so that they will hopefully react properly to a threat and not kill innocent children. What about children who do not ride a school bus--those who are driven to school? No letting them out to run into the school so that the driver, possibly a parent, can go to work. Oh, no. Now the drivers will have to wait until they are cleared to let their child(ren) out. How long will this take? Will children no longer be allowed to walk to school because of the risk of being shot on school grounds? Perhaps all children will have to be bused to school--no walking or being driven by a parent. How many more buses and highly trained security bus drivers will it take to accomplish this?
Won't an armed would-be killer just need to first target the people he knows or suspects will be armed--the bus drivers, any outside guards--before massacring the children before they even get inside the secure school?
Where will it all end? And why is it that school children and teachers will be penalized, treated like criminals, just so that gun enthusiasts will feel free to buy, sell, own, and open carry any type of gun they wish at any time, crying that it is their "right"? Wouldn't it be better to create a much more peaceful society for our children, free of the fear of being shot to death in school or at the mall or at a concert. Free of the sight of people openly carrying lethal weapons, weapons designed for no other purpose than to kill, not knowing if they are "good guys" or "bad guys"? Free of the fear and worry and trauma created by mass shootings? Stringent gun laws, over time, will produce this desired effect.
This article in the Washington Post today impressed me when I read it after writing my own thoughts (above): Why I will never carry a gun in my classroom, by Victoria Barrett, a writer and writing teacher in Indianapolis. She writes, "...arming teachers, an idea that bubbles up after every school shooting in this country and one that President Trump expressed support for on Wednesday. But my fellow teachers and I did not enter this profession to be security guards. And if this proposal becomes a reality, we will not have safer schools. We will have confusion, possibly more tragedy and an exodus of educators at a time when our country can’t afford it... It seems clear that under any policy that arms teachers, it would be my responsibility to shoot my student dead. This creates more problems than it solves. If I miss or fail to fire, and he murders the other students, can their loved ones sue me? What if my shot ricochets and hurts or kills one of them? What if his gun turns out to be a walkie-talkie, a misidentification that happened outside my campus’s library last year, and I shoot my student dead for possession of an unusual electronic device? In these scenarios, some more outlandish than others, teachers become soldiers, and schools become liable when students aren’t protected in such circumstances as a shooting. But legal liability isn’t the reason I will never carry a firearm into a classroom. If it’s my responsibility to shoot someone to protect 25 others, I will have been drafted unwillingly into an ideological army to protect the rights of some civilians to own and operate military-style weapons. And I will not be conscripted."
