Massacre in Connecticut

[nissangirl74]

The elementary school my daughter and myself attended has zero security other than a sign that reads "you must sign in at the office and receive a visitors badge before walking through our school". Glass doors and floor to ceiling windows on either side. Multiple entrances into the school that, to my knowledge are never locked. Same thing at the middle school. There are multiple hallways you can enter before ever reaching the office too.

This week's massacre proves that there should be no assumption of safety, no matter the size of your town or the published crime rate. Mental illness knows no boundary. I learned a lot about this in Patho this semester. While certain mental illnesses occur more in one population or another, there is not enough of a pattern to even fathom trying to profile individuals. While most of these individuals do have physiological differences in their brains, there is no non-evasive way to screen for it. Other than a gut feeling in those that are super-observant / educated, there's no way to tell just by looking at people. When friends and family are interviewed after these tragedies occur, most people saw no outward signs of a mental break. Most of them are of above average intelligence. If people did notice something "odd", most often it is not enough to garner bringing it to a professional's attention. Personality tests MIGHT give you a clue (and that's a BIG maybe) but how in the world would you go about administering them? Especially since most of the recent offenders aren't in school. How do you screen all the people for a potential problem in < 1% of the population without infringing on personal freedoms?

There will be no easy solution/fix to this situation. You can toss around the ideas of gun control but taking away people's right to own a gun won't stop people from having them. That idea is a ludicrous as making drugs illegal. Arming teachers and installing armed guards in schools stationed at every exit and entrance might hinder one's ability to shoot up a elementary school but who is going to pay for that extra security? Who is going to pay for the weapons training / education? Who is going to pay for their weapons?

Unfortunately, neither of those is an ideal solution because neither will fix the root of the problem. These people are broken. If they suffer from a congenital brain disorder, they often times can not control their actions or deny their impulses. Some respond well to medications and psychotherapy, some don't respond to anything. Some people just have a spontaneous mental break and flip the **** out. We need more attention placed on the mentally ill and develop programs and resources for those who are trying to treat and care for them: doctors, caregivers, and parents. The only thing worse than not being able to recognize a killer among us is to deny treatment to the ones that we do.

The best solution I can see, from my very small, uneducated brain, is that we need to attack this from multiple angles. Protection, education, awareness. I honestly believe those things can be achieved without infringing on our personal freedoms as long as we have educated, honest people leading the charge.

[Bubba1]

Doesn't matter if the school is in suburbs or not, you can walk into almost all schools. Breaking a glass door is rather easy

OF course you can. If a madman is motivated enough he will find a way to get in. Sandy Hook, like most other schools, lock their outer doors, but those doors and windows must to be able to be easily opened from the inside incase of a quick evacuation (like a fire) So there's clearly a tradeoff between security and escapability.

And If you're suggesting we rebuild all our schools into fortresses with armed security guards there all day, I'd be curious from where you'd get the money to pay for it all.

[snwbrdr435]

Sandy Hook, like most other schools, lock their outer doors

Most schools do not lock any doors

[Bubba1]

Sandy Hook, like most other schools, lock their outer doors

Most schools do not lock any doors

They lock them around here. And if they don't do it in your area, don't be surprised if they begin doing it soon.

[bigbadberry3]

Around here, we do have an officer in the building during school hours as a liaison between the local PD and our school. We are required to lock and shut our doors during all time during the day.

We also practice lock down drills randomly throughout the year FWIW.

[Dattebayo]

Security is no slouch here, either. They usually have vertical bars on the inside of outer door windows along with that glass with the embedded chickenwire to keep wierdos out. You could get a long somthinorother to then pass between the bars and press in the push bar if you really wanted, tho. But most of those doors have an alarm in the bar that goes off when it's pressed in if the door is double-locked... and they always are after a certain time. The front is usually the only door open.

[06_blkout]

In high school we had metal detectors with no less than 3 Sheriffs officers present during the day.

At my son's elementary school, you could just walk in, do the little sign in thing, which no one checked, and easily blend in without being noticed. It was the biggest joke I've ever seen. This week, you have to ring a doorbell, and the school counselor, who might weigh 115 lbs has to let you in. So far this week when my mother dropped him off, there has been an officer at the school. Of these 3 days, 2 of them the officer has been way over in the side lot, in his car, on his cell phone. What a joke.

[Skibane]

Arming teachers and installing armed guards in schools stationed at every exit and entrance might hinder one's ability to shoot up a elementary school but who is going to pay for that extra security? Who is going to pay for the weapons training / education? Who is going to pay for their weapons?

In any slice of American life (including teachers), there are some people who choose to arm themselves, get training, and obtain a concealed handgun permit - without asking anyone else to pay for the associated expenses. If most schools weren't so zealous in enforcing ridiculous "gun free zone" policies, I suspect you'd see a lot more of these people armed in classrooms.

As it currently stands, there are some schools where armed teachers are already a reality - Here's one example.

Great post, BTW.