HerrGlock
08-22-2008, 09:56
http://www.amarillo.com/stories/082208/new_11054142.shtml
Guns at school? Perhaps not such a crazy idea
By Jon Mark Beilue
"But being as this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya, punk?"
Could those be the words this fall of some school teacher in tiny Harrold repeating the memorable dialogue from Clint Eastwood's "Dirty Harry" film 35 years ago? Then it's followed by some wide-eyed 15-year-old in an FFA jacket yelling, "OK, OK, I'll spit out my gum."
Anyone who's driven to Fort Worth along Highway 287 has driven through Harrold. But if you turned your head to cough, you may have missed the small community southeast of Vernon that has but 110 students in grades K-12.
But little Harrold and its school board has made a big statement, and one that Gov. Rick Perry supports. Teachers and staff will be permitted to carry guns at school as long as they are adequately trained in gun safety.
First reaction is this is ridiculous, dangerous, almost comical. But that's a quick knee-jerk reaction.
"It's an interesting concept," said Dr. Billy Howell, superintendent at Happy. "A couple of days ago we kicked that around. It might make discipline in the classroom easier. A teacher could pull back his coat a little bit and say, 'Would you like to repeat that again?' "
It is easy to joke about, wondering if 9 mm handguns could be purchased in school colors. It might make for better motivation, too, for football wind sprints if a coach were twirling a .38 on his itchy finger instead of a whistle.
But it's obviously a serious subject, and the idea is not nearly as outlandish as it might at first seem. Panhandle communities of Hedley and Happy fit the Harrold profile.
They are rural schools just off busy highways. They are not county seats so there's no county sheriff's department there. There's no police liaison officers. There's no city police.
"It's entered my mind a lot of times, it really has," Hedley Superintendent Bryan Hill said. "We're at least 15 minutes from law enforcement. How many could be killed by some nut in 15 minutes?"
Don't think student shootings only occur in large urban or suburban schools. Or do Red Lake, Minn., Red Lion, Pa., Pearl, Miss., and Cold Spring, Minn. - school shootings that resulted in 23 deaths in the last five years - sound urban? If six children can be killed by an intruder at an Amish school in Pennsylvania two years ago, tell me again which places could it never happen?
"We're right here on I-27, and who knows who could darken the door," said Howell, whose school has an enrollment of 220. "In preparedness, it might be the next step. A lot of folks might think you'd have to be crazy to consider this, but in another year people might be saying, 'Boy, Harrold was ahead of the curve.' "
No one foresees a bunch of Inspector Harry Callahans in a classroom, gun holsters strapped across their shoulders. But in the absence of quick law enforcement, a concealed weapon or two in the lockboxes of licensed administrators is no longer a sign of the Wild West.
"This is typical in many ways of what rural schools do," Howell said. "They have to take care of themselves. They do not have the availability of some of the resources that others do. Rural communities are often left out of certain things that others take for granted."
So this decision in Harrold, made by a board that knows its community, seems well-grounded enough. The positives outweigh the negatives and cause others in similar situations to at least nod their heads.
"I don't know the answer," Hill said, "but we've talked security many times with our board. I don't know if we'd ever go as far as Harrold did, but I respect what they did. I can understand it."
Jon Mark Beilue's column appears Sunday, Wednesday and Friday. He can be reached at jon.beilue@amarillo.com or (806) 345-3318.
(Comments link at the bottom of the page)
Editorial Page Editor:
john.kanelis@amarillo.com
Guns at school? Perhaps not such a crazy idea
By Jon Mark Beilue
"But being as this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya, punk?"
Could those be the words this fall of some school teacher in tiny Harrold repeating the memorable dialogue from Clint Eastwood's "Dirty Harry" film 35 years ago? Then it's followed by some wide-eyed 15-year-old in an FFA jacket yelling, "OK, OK, I'll spit out my gum."
Anyone who's driven to Fort Worth along Highway 287 has driven through Harrold. But if you turned your head to cough, you may have missed the small community southeast of Vernon that has but 110 students in grades K-12.
But little Harrold and its school board has made a big statement, and one that Gov. Rick Perry supports. Teachers and staff will be permitted to carry guns at school as long as they are adequately trained in gun safety.
First reaction is this is ridiculous, dangerous, almost comical. But that's a quick knee-jerk reaction.
"It's an interesting concept," said Dr. Billy Howell, superintendent at Happy. "A couple of days ago we kicked that around. It might make discipline in the classroom easier. A teacher could pull back his coat a little bit and say, 'Would you like to repeat that again?' "
It is easy to joke about, wondering if 9 mm handguns could be purchased in school colors. It might make for better motivation, too, for football wind sprints if a coach were twirling a .38 on his itchy finger instead of a whistle.
But it's obviously a serious subject, and the idea is not nearly as outlandish as it might at first seem. Panhandle communities of Hedley and Happy fit the Harrold profile.
They are rural schools just off busy highways. They are not county seats so there's no county sheriff's department there. There's no police liaison officers. There's no city police.
"It's entered my mind a lot of times, it really has," Hedley Superintendent Bryan Hill said. "We're at least 15 minutes from law enforcement. How many could be killed by some nut in 15 minutes?"
Don't think student shootings only occur in large urban or suburban schools. Or do Red Lake, Minn., Red Lion, Pa., Pearl, Miss., and Cold Spring, Minn. - school shootings that resulted in 23 deaths in the last five years - sound urban? If six children can be killed by an intruder at an Amish school in Pennsylvania two years ago, tell me again which places could it never happen?
"We're right here on I-27, and who knows who could darken the door," said Howell, whose school has an enrollment of 220. "In preparedness, it might be the next step. A lot of folks might think you'd have to be crazy to consider this, but in another year people might be saying, 'Boy, Harrold was ahead of the curve.' "
No one foresees a bunch of Inspector Harry Callahans in a classroom, gun holsters strapped across their shoulders. But in the absence of quick law enforcement, a concealed weapon or two in the lockboxes of licensed administrators is no longer a sign of the Wild West.
"This is typical in many ways of what rural schools do," Howell said. "They have to take care of themselves. They do not have the availability of some of the resources that others do. Rural communities are often left out of certain things that others take for granted."
So this decision in Harrold, made by a board that knows its community, seems well-grounded enough. The positives outweigh the negatives and cause others in similar situations to at least nod their heads.
"I don't know the answer," Hill said, "but we've talked security many times with our board. I don't know if we'd ever go as far as Harrold did, but I respect what they did. I can understand it."
Jon Mark Beilue's column appears Sunday, Wednesday and Friday. He can be reached at jon.beilue@amarillo.com or (806) 345-3318.
(Comments link at the bottom of the page)
Editorial Page Editor:
john.kanelis@amarillo.com
