The recent shooting in a school in Florida has raised a firestorm of issues relating to school safety. Calls for restricting the sale of assault weapons, arming teachers and staff in the schools, mental health reforms, and hiring a professional security staff for all schools. All of these have pros and cons and this article will attempt to address these issues.
ASSAULT WEAPONS BAN
A look at past events provides a window to see the outcome of this choice. In Columbine, the two shooters were armed with handguns and improvised explosive devices. The shooters were not of age to purchase firearms. In the Sandy Hook case, the shooter obtained his AR-15 by killing his own mother. In each of these cases, no law would have changed the outcome.
ARMING TEACHERS AND STAFF
There are four questions which MUST be answered before arming staff in a school setting.
(1) Is a teacher willing to take the life of a child?
(2) Does the teacher abandon their classroom and move toward the gunfire or do they protect their own students?
(3) Who is liable if the shot(s) fired by a staff member strike an innocent party? There is no immunity from liability of the teacher even if the school’s insurance applies.
(4) What happens when law enforcement comes into contact with an armed adult who is not wearing a ball cap which says “GOOD GUY”?
MENTAL HEALTH
The question of defining what mental issues excludes a person from possessing or purchasing a firearm is a slippery slope. Are there going to be Mental Health Courts to adjudicate whether or not a person is competent to possess a weapon. There would need to be an independent arbiter who can look at evidence and make an informed judgment. The costs of a full time court would be staggering.
HIRING AN ARMED SECURITY STAFF
The costs of staffing all schools with armed and trained security forces would be staggering. In order to effectively cover a high school would take four officers. Assuming that the salary and benefits were $60,000.00 per officer, that is $240,000 annually. Smaller schools would require a minimum of two officers. Where are those funds going to come from?
One possible option is school districts placing a tax levy for which all funds would be earmarked for security only. Then it would be up to the voters to decide if they want to pay the cost of protecting their children.
OTHER ISSUES
Effective use of technology can offer an opportunity to mitigate, if not prevent a mass shooting event. Technology might include electro-magnetic locks on the classrooms which could be initiated from the main office or security office. The individual doors could then be opened by police which the swipe of a card. Another viable option is electronic gates which could segregate the building restricting the movement of a shooter.
Having a placard, such as fruits, which would change daily and be placed in the window of the classroom would assist law enforcement in identifying threat levels and prevent the shooter from being able to see inside the room. The placement of the wrong placard of the day would immediately alert law enforcement of an active threat.
SUMMARY
There are no simplistic issues to a very complex problem, however a discussion needs to be open and free to multiple ideas and suggestions. The most prevalent problem is finding the funding necessary to implement. People are adverse to paying more and more taxes, so passage at the local level is a hurdle. Federal funding would be in the area of hundreds of millions of dollars annually and create another layer of government employees attempting to interfere with local government. The failures of the Transportation Security Administration shows the results of federalizing local functions.
The threat level will never be eradicated, but it can be substantially reduced and mitigated.