I find it interesting that last year Governor Perry and the Texas Legislature found it important to spend millions Perry's friends in the Cancer Research Counsel, allow electric companies to raise rates 100% for wholesale electricity, ignore the needs additional water resources, increase border protection, and increase mental health services. Instead, they engineered a $5.4 billion dollar cut in public school funding. This cut sent thousands of teachers home, and put thousands more students into crowded classrooms. It closed down school libraries, professional development activities, greatly reduced transportation/busing services, and stopped preparations for the many district's growth in student populations that happens year after year.
Now, Lt. Governor David Dewhurst, an important member of Perry's inner counsel, has proposed spending state money on training school employees to carry weapons in the classroom. Let the teachers defend the children. The money is not for having trained police who have to deal with this on a daily basis, but men and women who by nature do not have that 'killer mentality' to shoot first and ask questions later. This is the stupidest idea the Texas legislature has come up with to date and they have had some real stupid ideas.
As a native Texan, and a public school educator, I find that the Perry administration, which considers itself a conduit to create wealth among the wealthy, who funnels money into special interest groups through public relations consultants, and supports Spanish owned toll roads built with tax payer money now wants to train and arm teachers as if we were some kind of state militia. This is the answer instead of increased mental health services, more and quicker background checks on gun buyers, and limits on big fat ammunition clips. Remember, we have not been invaded since the Civil War, and it doesn't look like we Texans/civilians are going to fight another war anytime soon.
Rather than pay for additional security in the public schools, the state spends a few million dollars training some teachers, who will have to buy their own guns, are expected to throw themselves in front of a gunman, or gunmen and shoot the bad guy. This flight of fantasy will only get more people killed. When the shooting starts, the last thing you want is a minimally trained teacher with a gun who has never fired it in a situation where the shooter is armed with AK-47s or AR-15s and huge clips full of ammunition. Will a bullet proof vest be supplied by the state?
An intruder barges into a school and starts shooting, does the teacher take care of her class or get out her gun? Is the gun loaded? If not it has to be. Is it under lock and key, then it has to be retrieved. When the teacher takes aim does she/he take to long to assure no students are in his/her line of sight? Does the legislature take into account Columbine - where multiple shooters are spread out?
As for daily activity, where does the teacher keep her piece? Is it worn, what if it is grabbed by a really big and angry student who shoots her? What if it is kept under lock and key and the day an intruder shows up the teacher finds the key is left at home? How about forgetting she/he sets it on the desk and a student grabs it? Lets say a parent shows up to test the system, which has already happened.
If the Texas Legislature were really concerned for the safety and security of students, there would be police in every school. There would be metal detectors and double locked doors before entry into the school. In addition, there would be policies forbidding parents/visitors in the teaching areas, cafeterias, and playgrounds where parents currently roam. Also, Texas teachers would not be the lowest paid teachings in the USA, the students would not be exposed to testing requirements that have them automatically retained, and the public schools focused solely on test preparation, a test that is not required or even considered for entrance into Texas public colleges and universities.
