The slim, black 9-millimeter handguns that the school superintendent David Hopkins selected for his teachers here weigh about a pound and slip easily into a pocket. Sixteen people, including the janitor and a kindergarten teacher, wear them to school every day.
Although state law prohibits guns on campus, Mr. Hopkins found a way around it.
Like rural educators who are quietly doing the same thing in a handful of other states, Mr. Hopkins has formulated a security plan that relies on a patchwork of concealed-weapons laws, special law enforcement regulations and local school board policies to arm teachers.
Without money to hire security guards for the five schools he oversees, giving teachers nearly 60 hours of training and their own guns seemed like the only reasonable, economical way to protect the 2,500 public school students in this small town in the Ozark foothills.
“Realistically, when you look at a person coming to your door right there with a firearm, you’ve got to have a plan,” Mr. Hopkins said. “If you have a better one, tell me.”
Still, in Arkansas and other states, the notion of arming teachers is meeting strong resistance.
“The idea that a single relatively untrained teacher is going to bring this person who is heavily armed down is a stretch,” said Mark Glaze, the director of Mayors Against Illegal Guns. “The idea is to keep the guns from the hands of the shooter.”
Those who have spent their lives in the classroom have similar concerns.
“No teacher that I know of could ever receive enough training,” said Steve Gunter, a retired history teacher in Bentonville, Ark.
“If I had a gun in my room with some of these students where I taught? They’d get it from me and shoot me,” he said. “They’d say, ‘Mr. Gunter, you gave me an F? Here’s your F.’ ”
I'd be more concerned about one of these Ozark hillbilly teachers deciding to shoot up the joint.What's your opinion? Please leave a comment
Your bigotry is showing again. But explain: Teachers are trusted with the lives and minds of students five days a week for ten months. If they're such a risk, why do we allow them in the classroom in the first place?
ReplyDeleteBecause there's no viable alternative. It certainly doesn't mean they're capable of handling firearms safely.
DeleteSo, the only reason we allow teachers into classrooms with students is because there's no viable alternative.
DeleteAnd follow that up with a statement that teachers are incapable of learning to handle firearms safely--not that they're not trained, but that they can't be!
Wow.
I'm going to have to remember that next time you guys wax eloquent about the wonderful teachers and teachers' unions.
Guess we'll have to add school teachers to Mike's list of "hidden criminals"
DeleteBreak the law, skirt the law, ignore the law. The toothless grin hillbilly NRA Greg has stated many times he would take the law into his own hands and dam police, or civil authorities. NRA Greg's anarchy will destroy civil society, not make civil society. Of course he thinks that way, he is an uncivil toothless grin hillbilly, who thinks everyone should live by his law. A dictator.
ReplyDeleteThe people interviewed in the article just sounded incompetent and stupid--I wouldn't be able to maintain control over my weapon--teachers are incapable of learning no matter how much you train them--we just need to try to stop psychos from getting guns and stop making contingency plans in case one of them falls through the cracks--etc.
ReplyDeleteYou on the other hand got your full bigot on, implying that while this might work some places, you're worried that the "Ozark Hillbillies" are somehow especially degenerate people who might shoot up the place if given half a chance.
You sound no different than any other vile bigot.
It's amazing that we allow such dangerous people--who get college degrees and often graduate work, get certified, and pass a background check--to be around children. What are we thinking?
DeleteGreg, you live in a backwards state with more than its share of rednecks, hillbillies and gun nuts and more than its share of the resultant problems.
DeleteIn other words, you reject everything I said here, proving yourself to be a lying bigot.
DeleteGeezus, what a bunch of FUCKING MORONS!! I swear I have never read such stupidity in my life. Where is the teacher going to store the gun? What happens when the teacher leaves the room? What will happen if a kid gets the gun and shoots other kids? There have already, in the last 1 month, been 2 guns left in bathrooms by cops. These teachers are not trained. I have run cheating courts in universities, and I am very happy that gunsuckidom was not at it current height of moronicity then, because I failed a bunch of cheaters who were VERY unhappy with their well-deserved Fs. And yes, students get pissed and shoot teachers. What this MORONICALLY stupid idea does is solve the problem of "How do I get the gun into the school?" The NRA is going to empower teachers to bring it in for the shooter. Fucking morons.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, perhaps you've missed out on the advance of technology, but there have been some wonderful inventions in the latter years. Pockets and holsters among them.
DeleteYou ignored the comment about the LEOs leaving guns in bathrooms. If they carry, there will be stupid accidents. Since they carry, we already know that they are morons.
DeleteGuns do more harm than good. It's a law of nature.
DeleteDisarming citizens only does harm. It's a law of nature.
DeleteAnon, what a frigging moron...did you even read the article?
ReplyDeleteThe pistols the teachers carry fit in their pocket, so your assertion that they would leave the gun in a desk drawer is baseless and unabashedly stupid.
And you are doubly stupid, as is Greg. In high school, there are large young men. Many teachers are smaller than these large young men. These large men play football, and are very strong. They have no problem simply taking the gun from the teacher. You gunsucks are just as fucking stupid as anyone I have ever read.
DeleteI agree with Anonymous in both content and passion.
ReplyDeleteWe're supposed to be surprised that you sympathize with an idiot?
DeleteThose "large young men" could overpower their parents, kill them, and bring a gun if they wanted to shoot up a school. The idea that a gun's mere presence will cause them to beat up a teacher, disarm him or her, and shoot up the school is treading into "mind wave" territory.
DeleteBut then, honesty and common sense aren't things you guys really believe in--just the code word versions of them that are MinTruth speak.
Teachers are no different than anyone else. With the minimum training requirements required for a carry permit, many of them will be liabilities. But, unlike the rest of you concealed carry permit holders, many of whom are bumbling idiots, teachers are around kids.
ReplyDeleteThat doesn't square with the comments in the article or your comments about teachers not being able to be trained enough.
DeleteAnd how do you figure that the rest of us aren't around kids? We may not be around them as part of our work, but many of us are parents, and others of us are around children a lot in social circumstances, at church, at weekend picnics, when we babysit for friends who need a date night, etc. and yet, somehow, we manage to not have regular bloodbaths.
And the statement that many permit holders are bumbling idiots is wishful thinking without any supporting evidence.
DeleteNo supporting evidence? I knew you didn't really read the multiple articles Mike posts, you just give the idiot NRA talking points no matter what the facts are.
DeleteJim, mostly, I ignore you now, but since this comment tries to be on point, I'll ask you to define many. Give it to us in terms of a percentage.
DeleteNo comprehensive reading skills either, figures.
DeleteJethro is waiting for you, he wants to go hunting squirrels with his bazooka.