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EDITOR:
I have been talking to anyone who will listen about ideas to improve the safety of our schools. I collected a short list, so far just five ideas. Here are their ideas and some arguments pro and con.
1. Anyone who comes onto a school campus without authorization has to spend a 72-hour observation period with the police. Do you see any drawbacks to this?
2. Have a K-9 officer at all schools. Good points: Kid-friendly guard dogs and their handlers offer a positive contact for students. Dogs easily sniff out guns. Bad points: Kids with allergies will be left out of friendly interactions. Guard would still have a gun which may signal danger to students. K-9 officers already have extra training and the dogs will need extra training also. This is a fairly large expense and should the school districts or law enforcement agencies pay for this?
3. Improve our mental health care system. So far, no one against, but what form will this take? And this will be a major expense.
4. Have campus cameras with a guard room full of camera screens and an armed guard observing constantly. Current campus monitors would also be watching as they have been and updating the guard in the room. This would keep the armed guard out of children’s sight. Bad points? The armed guard would also be out of a nutcase’s sight.
5. Stop arguing about guns. That question should be left to a less emotional time. We do need to keep our focus on school safety.
Most of the people that I talked to would say that the problem is school safety and mental health.
A letter from Ashley Blinn started me thinking about this. We need to concentrate on school safety right now. I think both school safety and mental health. Oh yes, Mr. Blinn, if you want me to join you, maybe you could stop being snarky about my place on the evolutionary scale. Then all of us can get together and solve this problem. After the problem is solved, Mr. Blinn, maybe you can come play peashooters (shoot guns) with us. Just not at each other and not at school.
MADELEINE DAVIDSON
Placerville
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Paddy O'furnitureFebruary 15, 2013 - 7:47 am
I like your idea about the K9 units in schools Madeline. K9's are good cops and they're less expensive for taxpayers; especially when they retire ;^). The idea of "armed guards in schools" has been floated and blown off by anti-gunners as pointless or too expensive. Yet, you can easily have local cops stay right near or at the schools during business hours. They do this in South Sac all the time with good results....?
1036-FrankFebruary 15, 2013 - 8:05 am
Every school should cut one administration position and replace it with a security team preferably an armed one. Every public place and private business with large gatherings should have armed security as well. The shooting New Years Eve in Old Town Sac by known criminal gang members shows how brazen armed felons are, they don't care about being in public armed shooting people and shooting it out with security in public. Once some level of security is obtained then the crackdown of armed felons and the armed mentally ill can proceed. In conjunction with the above start on securing the border and stopping the flow of criminal drug gangs and their dangerous associates into the country.
francescaduchamp@att.netFebruary 15, 2013 - 8:06 am
I would agree with K-9 s. Improving our mental health care system--should be a given.
EvelynFebruary 15, 2013 - 9:19 am
YOU-CAN-NEVER-BE-TOO-CAREFUL: "Student with folding shovel prompts school lockdown" - HERE - Police weren't initially sure what type of weapon the suspect was carrying. After further investigation, police learned the shovel actually belonged to a teacher, who had asked an 8th grade student to grab it from their car. The teacher planned to use the it as part of a classroom discussion on WWII. ... They don't plan to charge the student with any crime.
chrispytahoeFebruary 15, 2013 - 4:31 pm
We have 2 kids enrolled at 2 different schools up here. We have taught them if they hear gunshots, find the nearest door and run like hell in a zig-zag pattern for the woods. This epidemic of violence in America has several roots in my opinion. The mixing of cultures and races in our country. Over-medicated kids and adults. The lack of ethics (work and otherwise) due to the emergence of the nanny state. The widespread availability of guns (legal and otherwise). Our glorification of gun culture. And the fact that we are a young country with an identity that has always centered around conquering or killing something.
Paddy O'furnitureFebruary 16, 2013 - 7:48 am
Crisped, sometimes you make sense, other times not. The epidemic of violence stems predominantly from our decline in morals. We tell our kids it's not nice ti hurt others but we remove the strongest condemnations of doing so from our society while simultaneously failing to adequately prosecute violent offenders. It makes no sense, yet the results make perfect sense. Now, I'm off to conquer/kill something.
Dave in KelseyFebruary 16, 2013 - 11:24 pm
The 72 hours with police only violates 3 or 4 rights. But in Obama's world of approving citizens to be held without a hearing indefinately and even targeted by our military, I guess it's okay.
EvelynFebruary 17, 2013 - 9:29 am
Dave in Kelsey: I had overlooked Ms Davidson's suggested 3-day lockup! She asks: "Do you see any drawbacks to this?" Well .................... uhhh ........
Phil VeerkampFebruary 17, 2013 - 10:04 am
Evelyn, there you go again. "72-hour observation period with the police", does not mean lock-up. You might go home with a cop. It might be like being a foreign exchange student. The cop might have a very pleasant home environment in which you would feel very welcome while the cop and family observe you. The cop may have a pool and spa. You seem very prickly, Evelyn.
EvelynFebruary 17, 2013 - 10:45 am
Prickly "how to . . . "