“Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.” -Isaac Asimov

“For every person who wants to teach there are approximately thirty people who don’t want to learn–much.” -W.C. Sellar and R. J. Yeatman

Education is the cornerstone of a civilized society, the center of hopes, and the stairway to unrealized dreams. Education is arguably one of the most essential assets that any human being can acquire. In America, it is often viewed as a symbol of a well rounded individual. It is clear that education is very important. Educational institutions and systems, however, are extremely flawed. Teachers spend their lives devoted to children, but who is devoted to them. Teachers are bombarded with stupid testing systems they are forced to teach, administrative bureaucracy, and seemingly standards that are always changing for them. They are put into situations where their resources are limited, but the expectations of them are high. They are often required to get more education for a promotion that only promises a little more pay. In the midst of all of this pressure, why do they have to deal with incompetent school security systems that allow students to bring guns and knives into schools?

Who is going to protect the teacher? Yesterday, a student walked into a high school in Katy, Texas and during the peak of lunch hour shot himself in the head. How did he manage to get the gun in the school in the first place? What message does that send to the crazy, degenerate students that seek to harm other students? There have been so many, too many to name, breaches in school security over the past weeks that it has served as a litmus test for the state of school safety. Many of my siblings are educators, my mother works in the school system, I’ve worked in education, and many of my close friends are educators. This topic is one very important to me. Why aren’t there more stringent safety requirements for schools regulated at the federal, state and local level? Why should teachers have to go to work with their lives literally threatened? It is ridiculous that someone who signs up for a job to shape young minds ends up in a situation where they equally have to focus attentions on protecting themselves and others in their schools. It is ridiculous that President Bush and everyone else only react after a tragedy.

“57% of public elementary and secondary school principals stated that one or more incidents of crime or violence were reported to the police…10% of all public schools had one or more serious violent crimes. Most serious violent crimes occurred in the middle and high schools.”
–U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics (NCES)

What needs to be done? Joe Pagliarulo, a talk show host on NewsRadio 740 in Houston, suggest we give teachers guns “in plain site” to deter violence in schools. Does he have a point? Although I think that putting guns into the hands of teachers may cause more harm than good, I am not opposed to putting tasers in to the hands of teachers. I feel that guns could cause some “trigger happy” teachers to make tremendous mistakes. Tasers, on the other hand, would allow teachers to use force when they feel threatened without sacrificing the child’s life if they are wrong. Every school needs a metal detector. If airports, government buildings, sporting events and all other major public places require them, why aren’t they required in every school? Police officers at schools need to be more visible and accessible to the teachers, the administrators, and the students. There should never be an incident at a school where a police officer is not in close proximity. School districts have their own police departments anyway. In all the incidents that I’ve heard of over the past weeks, I’ve wondered where the campus security was during the incidents.

There needs to be just as much emphasis put on school safety as there is ciriculum and testing. I believe that teachers should be given self defense training and more training on handling emergencies concerning violence. Schools equally need to be better equipped structurally to “lock down” parts of the school when there is a threatening situation. Finally, more dollars need to be allocated for school safety specifically. The state lotteries need to actually begin to be used for what they were initially designed for…education. Are the children not important? Are the teachers not important? Safety needs to be given just as much attention in schools as everything else!

“An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory. “
–Ralph Waldo Emerson