BUILDING SHOOTER PROOF SCHOOLS -LIMITS FUNDS FOR REAL EDUCATION

A NO BRAINER—KEEP KIDS SAFE—-LIMIT BATTLEFIELD WEAPONS TO THE BATTLEFIELD.

SHOOTER-PROOFING SCHOOL  MEASURES USE FUNDS THAT CAN NOT BE SPENT ON EDUCATION

The Wall Street Jounral reports today (March 13, 2018) that many of the nation’s 100,000 public schools are or will be undergoing expensive modifications and or redesign to help protect students from wouldbe shooters.  Rather than make sensible decions to restrict military grade weapons from the civilian market our schools will spend vast sums on making fortresses out of our public schools and in the process restrict limited funds which would be spent on basic education.

 The WSJ article focuses  on a recently designed modern elementary school in Texas, The George H. Bush Elementary which was designed with the intention to help foil  potential shooters.  But ideas change with each new tragic school shooting; there have been 32 of them since 1990.  .  This new school has classroooms with large windows “so teachers can see out into the hall where intruders might come from”.  But after the tragic event in Broward Counnty, Florida on February 14, 2018, school officials now fear that the glass windows would also permit a shooter to “see potential victims in the classroom”.  Officials are uncertain and the debate continues there.  What would be better, covered or opened widows on doors?

The vast sums of money being spent by communities, even in face of the likelihood that these protocols and designs may change after the next tragic event, gives some of us pause.  Perhaps instead of showering vast sums of money on bullet proof glass, steel doors, high tech security cameras and similar hardware, communities were to focus on limiting access to banned weaponry and use those funds for improved education purposes rather than uncertain safety measures.

Another consideration is that expending funds for “safety” means restricting funds for needed educational purposes.  When the choice is between placeing bullet proof glass on all the windows in a school versus purchasing desperately needed basic computers for classrooms—-what administrator will go for the computers?


The decision for computers and educational excellence would be possible were our nation to face up to the fact that we MUST  restrict access of military weapons like the AR15 and other similar gas-operated, rapid-fire, high velocity cartrige, large magazine, automatic and semiautomatic weapons.

Keep our kids safe in school.