So my city's school district new proposal: Armed guard at EACH of our schools

[rainbow4321]

And this is no small district. Total of 75 campuses.

Reddest city in the reddest of counties...they are throwing around words like it should be called an "investment" instead of "cost".


http://www.wfaa.com/news/local/Plano-ISD-board-says-schools-need-armed-officers-187065021.html

Trustees then agreed that keeping students safe is a priority, endorsing a proposal to add armed guards at district facilities.

Superintendent Richard Matkin said it's sad that he even has to propose armed security officers at every campus.

Matkin delivered three proposals, each calling for armed guards at Plano schools.
•Proposal 1 would allocate two officers at each senior high school, and one officer at the district's 72 other facilities.
•Proposal 2 calls for one officer on every campus.
•Proposal 3 would post an armed guard at each elementary school, early childhood facility, and academy high school.

The plan to add guards is estimated to cost between $2.2 and $2.7 million a year.

[Morning Dew]

1. Whe the only solution you can see is more guns...

I think that's called "Glock-oma".

[NYC_SKP]

2. Even if they did this nationwide it would not stop shit from happening.

One guard, or three, at each campus will NOT stop a nut hell-bent on murder-suicide from finding a way in.

What nuttery!

[rainbow4321]

4. Really stupid thing: our high schools are "open campuses"

My kids went thru the district...and the senior highs (11th and 12th) campuses are so huge, they are made up of several buildings, almost like mini college campuses. The kids come and go as they please, during lunch, before/after/in between classes, etc.
I remember when my first kid was to go there, one of the papers I had to sign was "are you ok with your kid leaving campus for their lunch if they want". Then when the school year started I realized how dumb/meaningless that paper was when I saw how freely the kids came and went, how HUGE the campus population was (her graduating class alone was 1,200 kids, putting the school population with all students and staff at probably 2500+ people on campus on any given day).
But the piece of paper/permission slip made it look like it was a controlled environment where the school could actually control your kid's coming/going...with like 90% of the students driving their own vehicles. Pfft. First time I was there around their lunch time it was like being in Grand Central Station with the amount of kids leaving the school..SURE you can keep a kid from leaving.

So in that kind of environment, how they even think two armed guards can be everywhere on the multi acre campus with several separate buildings. My kids used to be exhausted going from one side of campus to the other just to go between classes..no time for pit stops at the bathroom if you wanted to be on time to class before the bell rang.

[DreamGypsy]

3. Wikipedia says there were 13,506 'school district governments' ...

whatever that means, in the US in 2002. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_district

If each spends between 2.2 and 2.7 million a year for guards in the schools in their jurisdiction that works out to about $30 billion to $36 billion per year.

Big chunk of $change$.

[HiPointDem]

8. school district governments = independent school districts

In the United States, public schools are run by school districts, which are independent special-purpose governments, or dependent school systems, which are under the control of state and local government.

A school district is a legally separate body corporate and politic. School districts are local governments with powers similar to that of a town or a county including taxation and eminent domain, except in Virginia, whose school divisions have no taxing authority and must depend on another local government (county, city, or town) for funding.

Its governing body, which is typically elected by direct popular vote but may be appointed by other governmental officials, is called a school board, board of trustees, board of education, school committee, or the like.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_district

[LeftInTX]

5. If taxpayers are willing to pay, I don't see the problem

Plano is one of the nicer school districts in Texas.

I'm in San Antonio, we have armed district police assigned to middle schools and high schools. However elementary schools have to share officers. It would cost our district about $2.6 million to assign an officer to each elementary school.

I think if taxpayers are willing to pay for security, consider yourself lucky.

Just imagine if parents didn't want to pay for security and "wanted to arm the teachers" instead?

[REP]

6. My Jr High and High School had armed security guards ... I graduated in 1982

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

7. Holy Jeebus, you need to go to a town hall meeting and explain more guns aren't the answer.

If there is a school shooter, having trustworthy armed persons already at the school when the shooting starts is bad. Using the phone and calling for trustworthy armed persons to show up (& then waiting for them to arrive) and save everyone is good.
I fail to see how everyone doesn't understand this.