For safety, arm guards at schools

For safety, arm guards at schools

Earl Edmonds is a former teacher, coach, and school administrator in Cincinnati, Ohio

I disagree with your editorial in the Oct. 16 Enquirer whose headline read “guns in schools a bad idea.” As a former school administrator, I believe strongly that every school in today’s world of violence and mental illness needs an armed resource person or armed building security person in each school. I do not believe that we need to arm teachers, but we need to have that one trained person in each school who can quickly respond to an armed intruder who wants to shoot innocent children and adults in our schools.

We need to take down the signs that state that our schools are gun free zones and put up a sign that states that guns are prohibited with the exception of an armed security guard who is in the building to provide a safe environment for our students and staff. The public should be made aware that our schools are no longer a place where someone can come into our schools with a gun knowing that both our students and staff are not protected by an armed security guard.

This is unfortunate that we have to resort to such a measure, but I am sure that all parents and teachers want protection and safety for their students while school is in session. Anyone who has such an evil plan will be met within seconds with someone who has responded to their attempt to use a weapon and someone who has been trained to handle a situation like this.

This makes a lot of sense to me when it comes to what we can do to prevent such a tragedy that has happened so many times in gun free zones in our schools. School districts and private schools hire custodians, cafeteria workers, and tutors to help our students during the school day. Now it is time to include security to protect everyone in our schools and to prevent the tragedies that have been happening around this country.

School safety has always been a high priority, and we need to change our strategy on how we prevent these kinds of despicable acts by mentally ill people who use this opportunity to make a sick statement.