In best Arnold Scharzenggar voice:

Get down! Get down! Just finish your damn coloring! I'll handle this!

Makes me think back when I taught. As a teacher in a larger school in our state, I took my role in supervision seriously. I had very few altercations to which to attend. Meaning I had to break up few fights. Maybe a couple per year. But during times I wasn't teaching and when I could, I was outside my room watching.

One area that I tried to address was notice strangers in the hall ways. We ddnt have a secure entrance so anyone could come in. Thus I watched for people who just ddnt fit. I profiled. This meant if I didn't recognize some one I approached them to ask if I could help them. Partly to do just that but also to check them out.

A rule we had in school was that vsiters were to check into the office first . It wasn't good for outsiders to interrupt a teachers classroom while class was in session. Even a parent. Most parents would comply. Of course peeps up to no good wouldn't.

Occasionally, I would have some one come to my room wanting to speak to one fry students. Often, I would not allow it. Not while in session. Also if I noticed someone who looked as if he was not sure wher he was going, I would approach.

There are over 130,000 k-12 schools in the US and most of them are in session at one time. We have very problems .

Dave

Been thinking about this whole dammed thing...and currently there is no way to prevent carnage even with armed guards in schools.

1. Do we want school kids to think they are living in a police state with everybody being armed to the teeth? Our whole society is so fragile, we can't be safe unless there are army of people running around with high-powered weapons to protect us?? (Where is Gort when you need him?)

2. Even with armed guards, they have to be in the right place at the right time. They can't cover the whole building unless you hire a platoon of them – which is crazy and who's paying for that? It's not like education needs more activities to suck their Classroom funds away.

3. Even with a single entry / exit, so many schools have tons of window. So what is to prevent someone like the crazy in Connecticut from walking up to a series of windows and just spraying bullets through the windows? Answer: nothing !!

4. So even with two or three armed guards, they couldn't get there quick enough to stop someone who is intentionally trying to inflict carnage!! ... and has no expectations to get out alive.

So in my mind, the only way to have any chance of stopping this and the incidents like with the firemen in New York is to get the heavy power firepower weapons off the street. It will take decades !! The NRA likes to cite the fact we had an assault weapon ban that didn't work. The problem is they didn't give a long enough time to work; it will take 20 to 30 years to get the stockpiles of heavy weapons off the streets and out of the black marketeers. Even then, it won't be 100% effective, BUT kids like the one in Connecticut will have an extremely difficult time getting their hands on them. And they won't be able to break into a household to steal them.

This country has to decide how much fire power an average citizen can wheel and how much should be reserved for the military, the police, FBI, National Guard, etc. That is in number one question. I think from a constitutional standpoint, having rifles and handguns satisfies your Second Amendment rights; the average citizen cannot have any expectation of having heavier firepower. The Constitution mentions nothing about the effectiveness or the capacity of firepower - Just that you have the right to use it.

I suppose next the NRA will advocate body armor for everyone. Bullet-proof backpacks are already on the market. Anything... ANYTHING but common sense bans on assault weapons and high capacity mags.

Shhhh
Steve, don't give them any ideas.

That is when respect was shown by the students and today what is going on with the relationship of students and teachers in most schools is plain disgusting.Years ago when we went to school we were afraid of the teachers and looked up to them now zero.
Who ever heard of bringing guns to schools and killing others this did not happen in the 50's 60's at all. Now teachers are afraid to teach which i cannot blame them in the least.The students not all of them but most are totally out of control today.This is the problem we are facing today.

I think you've been watching too much "news." Both with my daughter and now with my granddaughter, that is not the case as I and they have and are experiencing.

I am talking about the real low life students in the public high school in FarRockway in NY. My cousin happens to be a teacher there for over 27 years and these animals are beyond control any longer. I would not even dare the filthy language she has to hear to post here and tell you the disgusting things she has been through in her teaching in this school. I still do not know why she is still there but she is.

Because thanks to the Bush recession they laid off tens of 1000s of teachers and no one will change school districts right now. Maybe she could have left before but waited too long. Then again maybe she'd very dedicated.

YES there are poor systems... they are that way primarily because of lack of funding to meet their needs (> average). Sure there are "bad teachers" but there aren't that many %-age wise, & they don't kill the whole system. I always ask a friend of mine who constantly whines about education... "Could you take Normandy Beach with 1 brigade ?"

Try teaching in a classroom. IF someone hasn't been there then, they don't know WTF they're talking about !! I WAS there in 1974, and it was tough... it's even harder now !!! much harder ! Teachers should be treated like our military vets. . . with great respect and support.

I agree with you 100%. Teaching is one of the hardest professions to endure especially in today's troubled times.