Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Guns in Schools: Does America really want the children of our nation to feel they must have armed guards in their lives to feel safe?

First, let me say that I do not have a problem with people owning weapons. The Constitution guarantees people the right to own weapons for protection. But, that right also includes the right not to own or carry weapons.
My concern about the discussions of gun control, including President Obama’s four step plan boils down to these:
  1. Does America really want the children of our nation to feel they must have armed guards in their lives to feel safe?
  2. Right now, America is falling behind in the level of learning compared with other countries across the globe. How will putting cameras, locked doors and armed guards in every school improve the learning of our children?
  3. Is there proof that the schools that have police (or guards) in them presently have less violence than those without or has that presence simply started a circling escalation of more violence?
  4. Most “security” guards (including many policemen) have not completed a college education. Do we want people who have not even completed adult level educational standards to be in our schools, protecting our children, becoming the standard for our children to look up to?
  5. Why is it that President Obama feels that it should become the duty of schools to be solvers of mental health issues? Since when has that become the purpose of public education?
  6. Those violent mass shootings have involved people who have realistic, emotional issues.( And yes, funding for mental health issues has been cut back far too much but that is for another discussion.) Most probably most of those have had problems which could point all the way back to things like bullying at schools.  Therefore, rather than dealing with the scars of emotional/physical abuse from such behavior, why is it not possible to expect the children of America to behave in a socially acceptable manner?
We need to stop wringing our hands and talking about ending things like bullying in the schools and start doing something about it.
Administrators, teachers and parents need to draw the line and say, ENOUGH! Children should be expected to treat each other civilly, politely and respectfully. This touchy feely stuff that started during the Flower Child movement of the sixties has to go--that everyone is "special" and because of this the rules don't apply to them. Of course they do!
Children absolutely are capable of behaving in an appropriate way. However, if they are not held to standards all the security guards in the world are not going to keep our children safe.