Tim:

There has recently been an idea of arming teachers being floated around. What is your take on giving teachers guns to protect themselves?

Scott,

Arming teachers isn't the answer. More kids are injured or killed on their way to school, or at home, or at parks, than at school.

I think that communities can make schools safe using a combination of law enforcement on campus, combined with technology to screen visitors. Schools should be vigilant about campus access.

But arming teachers isn't the answer.

T

As a parent, I wouldn’t worry too much about a shooter coming on to campus. The bigger worry is the day-to-day bullying that goes on at schools. It seems to be more pronounced at the middle and high schools. Bullying can take the form of physical distress as well as emotional distress. Both can do a great deal of damage to a child.

I'm not totally on board with the idea of guns for teachers/adminstrators either, but many statistics suggest that an armed citizenry reduces crime and was wondering if we started to see a public perception of an administration armed to defend students, things might change.

Case in point, you rarely ever see an assault on a police department while unarmed schools, this tends to happen at least once a year. The real question is how far is our society willing to go to protect students?

We need effective deterrents at school to make it clear to anyone that wants to cause harm, that schools are no longer easy target for gun violence.

Jerre:

While bullying is a very serious issue in school, it's been going on since I was in school and probably before. Hell, I was bullied a few times in life. The only difference is we have a media that's latched unto making it look like an epidemic.

In sixth grade I was jumped by three kids on a lunch break out of sight of teachers or supervision. I threw the leader to the ground during the scuffle and the two others ran for it and I went on to class.

It was pretty empowering feeling to know what I did and these kids never messed with me again. I'd probably be suspensded or prosecuted these days for defending myself, but I felt it was the right thing to do.

Something tells me, this bullying discussion is more about propping up the "feelings" industry.

The best thing you can do for your kids is get them in Karate or some other self-defense course.

Bullies always select easy targets and it seems the rules/system is creating more soft targets than actually fixing the problem.

Scott something has changed. Kids now days are more likely to respond to people that bully them in a variety of fashions rather than just take it.

I am so happy to see your compassion for those that get harrassed every day and are denyed an education because of it.