Guns in School

[kat]

OMG! Just caught a blurb about a Texas school allowing teachers to carry guns to school before dgs switched to cartoons.

Googled the story. A small district with a little over 100 students has decided to allow teachers to bring guns to school. I'm just floored. I can't imagine. I would feel less safe knowing there were gun toting teachers on campus. I'd have to take my kids out of that school. The article said that no parents have complained.

[AnnW]

here's the article in our paper...

There's one item Houston-area school officials say teachers can leave at home when classes resume later this month: Their handguns.

Houston school districts said there's no way they'll follow the lead of a tiny North Texas school system that may be the first in the nation to let employees pack heat at their lone 110-student K-12 campus.

Harrold Superintendent David Thweatt said his school board unanimously passed the policy last October to protect employees and students in the case of an armed intruder or hostage situation.

He wouldn't say how many teachers went through the authorization process, which includes receiving a Texas concealed handgun license and undergoing crisis management training.

Thweatt said that despite the outrage from his public school peers, Harrold stands by its decision. The first few months of the new policy have gone smoothly, he said.

"We think we have acted cautiously and wisely," said Thweatt. "Others should be free to govern their school districts as they see fit."

Thweatt said the small community is a 30-minute drive from the sheriff's office, leaving students and teachers without protection. He said the district's lone campus is situated just 500 feet from heavily trafficked U.S. 287, which could make it a target.

Texas' penal code prohibits firearms at schools "unless pursuant to the written regulations or written authorization of the institution."

Alief school board member Sarah Winkler, vice president for the Texas Association of School Boards, said she didn't even realize that school trustees could vote to override the law. Individual school boards shouldn't have that type of power, she said.

"This is just appalling," Winkler said. "One accident, and I don't know how the school board would live with themselves."

She wasn't the only Houston educator stunned by the policy.

"It's a disaster waiting to happen," said Gayle Fallon, president of the Houston Federation of Teachers. "It's right up there with worst ideas in the history of modern education."

In an urban district like Houston's, Fallon said, she'd worry that students would get their hands on employees' guns.

"We could end up arming half the gangs in Houston," she said.

The idea was equally unpopular in suburban Cypress-Fairbanks.

"Absurd would be the word I would use," said Don Ryan, president of the Cy-Fair school board. "It's almost like something out of a movie."

It's the type of decision, Fallon added, that makes Texas a laughingstock nationally.

The plan could also backfire, so to speak, said Bryan Clements, executive director for security and technology support for the Galena Park school district.

"It is foolish to introduce more weapons into the school environment, even under the guise of wanting to provide better protection for our students," he said. "Staff would have to be constantly concerned with weapon security and retention, thus taking away from their ability to focus on their main goal, teaching students. In the event of a crisis there is no manageable way to integrate armed staff into the crisis response plan."

Gloria "Jo" Floyd, head of the San Antonio-based Nursing Consultant Educational and Health Services, said she's worried that the policy will give the Harrold district a false sense of security. She questioned where the guns would be stored, whether teachers could access them quickly enough and whether an educator could really handle a weapon effectively in a crisis situation.

"They sound a little bit more paranoid than they need to be," she said. "But if they're looking for notoriety ... they certainly stirred it up."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

jennifer.radcliffe@chron.com

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5947050.html

like the article says, i think it would a disaster.
i agree with the last line.

[DMS]

I agree they needed to put some kind of protection plan in place given that they're so isolated, but making it the teachers' responsibility was a very poor choice in my opinion.

[AnnW]

if they are doing it because they are so far from the sherriff's office, hire some police officers to work at the school.

[RCT]

if they are doing it because they are so far from the sherriff's office, hire some police officers to work at the school.

Exactly what I was thinking

[DMS]

Dh said if they're that far from the sheriff's department, they must also be that far from the fire department, so they could have the teachers carry hyper powered super soakers and solve both problems .

[AnnW]

Dh said if they're that far from the sheriff's department, they must also be that far from the fire department, so they could have the teachers carry hyper powered super soakers and solve both problems .

ROFL!!!!!!!!!!

[Melody]

LOL Donna.

What a rotten idea. I could not imagine hearing that my child's teacher is carrying a gun in the school. I don't agree with them being in homes, never mind schools! I would freak and remove my kids.

[Diane]

Dh said if they're that far from the sheriff's department, they must also be that far from the fire department, so they could have the teachers carry hyper powered super soakers and solve both problems .

Good point.

[Diane]

I agree with Ann... but I can also see why some teachers may want to bring/have a gun close by... just in case. If I'm not mistaken, some of these schools have had security and it hasn't done any good. I'm not sure if I'd be more afraid of a disturbed student gaining access to the teacher's gun, where they would normally not have the opportunity. Obviously the gun will be located in a location easily accessible to the teacher if/when needed... so just how secure would it be from the students? I can definitely see the value... but not too sure if I'd feel real comfortable about sending my child to a school knowing it was armed with so many guns. What's really a shame is that this is even an issue. Our children have become targets... It use to be that you could send your kids off to school in the morning and know they'd return home safe. Now you've got to resort to gun toting teachers. Pretty scary...

[AnnW]

If I'm not mistaken, some of these schools have had security and it hasn't done any good. I...

i don't think the school had, had any issues.

[Leigh]

Ok... here is my question to this. Sometimes it is students in the school that do the shooting. (ie, Columbine and VA Tech). If that were the case here, would the teachers at this school be willing to use those guns on their own students and not have a horrible feeling. I am guessing with the school so small, the teachers must know most of the students pretty well.

I agree with Ann, I think they should hire police officers that have been trained to come in if they are that nervous about things.

[Diane]

i don't think the school had, had any issues.

At Columbine, the armed “school resource officer” refused to pursue the killers into the building, and kept himself safe outside while the murders were going on inside... He sure didn't do much good.

[Diane]

Ok... here is my question to this. Sometimes it is students in the school that do the shooting. (ie, Columbine and VA Tech). If that were the case here, would the teachers at this school be willing to use those guns on their own students and not have a horrible feeling. I am guessing with the school so small, the teachers must know most of the students pretty well.

I agree with Ann, I think they should hire police officers that have been trained to come in if they are that nervous about things.

I don't think anyone knows how they will react until they're in the situation. The way I look at it... if one of my students came in toting a gun threateniing to shoot/kill a bunch of students, teachers... and myself, I'd shoot. I'd rather see one student/shooter go down than many... although I think I'd probably try to shoot where it wouldn't case a death. I'm assuming that if a teacher has a gun, they have had the proper training and are licensed to carry a concealed weapon. I just don't like the idea of gun's and children being in the same room with each other...

Having police protection would be the ideal, but not too sure that that's enough anymore.

[Diane]

Ok... here is my question to this. Sometimes it is students in the school that do the shooting. (ie, Columbine and VA Tech). If that were the case here, would the teachers at this school be willing to use those guns on their own students and not have a horrible feeling. I am guessing with the school so small, the teachers must know most of the students pretty well.

I agree with Ann, I think they should hire police officers that have been trained to come in if they are that nervous about things.

It's not always dissatisfied kids who are doing the shooting... In 1988 30-year-old Laurie Dann attacked a second-grade classroom in Winnetka, Illinois, and in January 1989, when an adult criminal named Patrick Purdy attacked a school playground in Stockton, California. Or when British pederast Thomas Hamilton killed 16 kindergarteners and a teacher in Dunblane, Scotland.

I also read that school are easy targets because everyone knows that they aren't allowed to carry concealed weapons... Maybe if there were guns allowed, those coming in doing the shooting would think twice...