readin', writin' and revolvers??

Harrold Independent School District in Texas has 110 students and about 55 staff people. This district made the national news for their recent school board decision to allow school staff to carry concealed weapons at school. The rationale is that the school campus is near a busy highway and someone might come in and cause trouble and it would take law enforcement at least thirty minutes to get to the school campus.

The gun carrying staff will have to be certified by the State of Texas to carry a concealed weapon, receive some form of crisis or critical incident training, get specific permission from school officials and promise to use bullets that don't ricochet too much.

This seems like a really bad idea to me--in a lot of ways.

First of all, more guns equal more risk. Right now there are no guns in the school, so just bringing guns in increases the risk that someone will get hurt by one of them either intentionally or unintentionally--by a staff person or a student. For it to be useful in a school shooting situation it has to be fairly accessible which then of course makes it harder to secure.

Second is the whole idea of mixing guns with education. This, I admit, is probably more of a philosophical objection in that I've never used guns much and am not comfortable around them. For me, seeing a gun in the room is like seeing a rattlesnake on the living room floor ready to strike. I realize that a lot of people are a lot more comfortable around guns and have safely used them for legitimate activities.

My third objection is that I think that it asks teachers to do something that is not right to ask them to do. If one teacher decides to get a gun and another doesn't--do parents get to have their child moved from one class to the other depending on their thoughts about armed vs. unarmed teachers. Does marksmanship count in the administrations decision to let the teacher have the gun in school---it seems like it damn well better if they're going to be shooting in or around a room full of children.

Teachers are expected to teach academics, nurture social and emotional development, foster good citizenship, make sure every student has enough to eat, has school supplies and adequate clothing. They need to be able to detect abuse and neglect and report it. Teachers work with changing expectations from government and school boards and administrations and parents. While some argue that teachers are overpaid it isn't usually anyone who has known a teacher well and watched how hard they work (at least the good ones). I think expecting them to carry a gun and shoot the bad guys is going too far.