Network Schools – Wayne Gerseny to https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/04/03/magazine/thomas-piketty-interview u w B l.html?h I’ll smid=url-share the Is for

As noted in earlier posts, I am on a vacation away from the internet and so I am re-publishing some posts on “guns in school” from years past… in part to keep the webpage “alive” in my absence, but, as is true in this case, to illustrate ideas that made sense in 2013 are sensible even now. Posts on this topic will continue through April 20 when the marches marking the anniversary of Columbine are scheduled. 

The madness of arming teachers, preventing any gun regulations from passing, and providing “good guys with guns” continues, as three separate media reports indicate.

The NYTimes featured an article on how some school districts are using the concealed weapons laws as a means to arm teachers in schools to make their schools more safe. The article offered a rural AR district as an example:

Without money to hire security guards for the five schools he oversees, giving teachers nearly 60 hours of training and their own guns seemed like the only reasonable, economical way to protect the 2,500 public school students in this small town in the Ozark foothills.

“Realistically, when you look at a person coming to your door right there with a firearm, you’ve got to have a plan,” Mr. Hopkins said. “If you have a better one, tell me.”

This misses one fundamental question: what training are the teachers missing by learning about guns? What kind of learning materials is the district not acquiring so that the teachers can have “… slim, black 9-millimeter handguns” that are now standard issue for teachers?

The Sunday NYTimes also had an article on the underreporting of deaths of children caused by handguns, noting that one reason for the underreporting is because the NRA has blocked legislation designed to improve data collection on gun-relatd accidents. It’s also blocked legislation that prevents the installation of child safety locks on weapons. We’ve made it nearly impossible to open an aspirin bottle but can’t make it difficult to operate a gun.

Las but not least: here’s a statistic I got from Harpers Index: 

Chance a US public school had fill-time security in 1997: 1 in 17.

Today: 1 in 3

Where did that money to fund the guards in schools come from? What could that money be used for if it were not siphoned off to pay for “good guy with guns”? And what evidence is there that the schools with armed guards are safer than schools without those guards?

When it comes to funding education and providing safe environments for children our actions speak louder than words. We short-change social services inside and outside schools and provide armed guards. Enough said….