Stopping the cycle of school violence
Editor,
The criminals that haunt our schools do so because our schools have failed to protect our children. They have failed to be proactive.
Instead of preparing for the worst, our schools continue to use outdated programs that foster inability and fear. Most schools in our area use the Avoid, Deter, Defend (ADD) program, where the key to success is school staff’s ability to hide or lock down the students.
We have witnessed over the past year how this approach fails to work during active shooter situations and how programs such as these are no longer effective options.
Instead of a being a soft target for mentally ill killers, like arguably every active shooter event this past year, it’s time to fight back.
There must be action—not plastering the shooter’s face all over news and social—but more comprehensive active shooter preparation within our schools.
If schools are unwilling or fiscally unable to put more guards in our schools, then they must train those they have available: our teachers. By arming teachers with the knowledge to recognize and respond to an active shooter situation they can assist resource officers on the scene. Never underestimate our teachers.
With proper training and proactive planning, we can build a safe environment, conducive to learning, that can be protected during an active shooter event.
Nathan Berry
This article appears in May 30 – Jun 5, 2018.
All that “sounds” well and good, but who knows when a teacher might go off
the deep end and start shooting up a class? What is to stop some evil-minded or twisted teen-ager from stealing the teacher’s gun and beginning to use it? For that matter, who can tell when a “resource officer” might get an itchy trigger finger and start shooting?
That is the most asinine idea to cross this letter section in a while. More school resource officers, yes. This illogical mess, no. Come back when you get a clue.
Nathan Berry, I ask you this, where will the money come from to pay for armories? Future school buildings might have to be designed for this. No school administrator in his or her right mind is going to let teachers walk the corridors or classrooms of their school “strapped”. Don’t teachers have enough on their plates without having to include active shooter training? If the emergency arrives, will teachers get hazardous duty pay? Would the school system pay for the counseling sessions and the lawyers to get what they did ruled a justifiable shooting? As someone has pointed out a teacher could lose it and go on a rampage.