Did the Newtown shootings scare the bejezus out of you, too? Maybe you’d feel better if there was an armed guard at your kid’s school.
Well, one Florida mother went so far as to hire one, a sheriff’s department deputy, to stand guard at Old Kings Elementary School where her daughter attends. WKMG Orlando reported that Laura Lauria wrote a $12,000 check to the Flager County School District to reimburse the Sheriff’s department for placing a deputy at the school six hours a day, five days a week for at least the next two months.
WKMG reports that all the parents they interviewed were grateful for the gesture. But I’m not so sure I would be, and here’s why:
- This lone deputy may now be a target for crazies. If you’ve ever seen an episode of “24,” you know that the first to get shot is always the guard. And this cop is now a high-profile guard, thanks to the news media coverage of this story.
- What happens when the money runs out? She likely can’t keep paying for it, and taxes won’t cover it, so what happens when there’s no more cash for the deputy? Will everyone feel even more frightened than they did after Newtown?
- She may actually have just increased the odds of a shooting at the school. There are some 55 million students in public schools across the country. Though it surely doesn’t feel like it now, the odds of being shot at school are actually quite low. But by putting one school with a newly hired guard on TV, the lunatic eating tomato soup with crackers on his TV tray watching the noon news may feel differently. (See above: crazies.)
- Armed guards can’t be written off. She reportedly made the donation through her company, a police supply store. I’m no accountant, but donating money to your own kid’s school for an armed guard doesn’t sound like a legitimate write-off to me.
Now if there were armed guard in every school, that’s a different issue. National Rifle Association consultant Asa Hutchinson told CBS This Morning last month that one-third of schools already have police presence, and asserts that all schools should have that same armed presence.
But CBS anchor Jeff Glor pointed out that armed guards at Columbine, police at Virginia Tech and of course, the heavily armed Ft. Hood could not prevent mass shootings. Watch the interview below.
Tell us: Would you (or do you now) feel safer with armed guards at your kids’ schools?
