Wrong way, y’all

North in the south-bound lane

AT FIRST the word was that some aldermen in North Little Rock might remove police from local schools. That couldn’t be right, could it?

Then somebody said the city council wasn’t really thinking along those lines, but wanted to negotiate with the city’s school board on the amount of money the city spends on those police officers.

Oooh-kay.

Then the paper reported that-no, no, no-the city council just wanted to “reassess” the city’s “financial commitment.”

Fine. Reassess. As much as y’all want to. Ain’t nothing wrong with taking another look at the books. But let’s not talk any more about getting rid of those cops at the city’s schools, shall we? That would be irresponsible. Maybe even dangerous.

When schools all across the country are looking for ways to get more police on campuses, when schools right here in Arkansas are even arming teachers and staffs to put another barrier between the bad guys and students, when the country looks at Newtown, Conn., with still teary eyes, to suggest going the other way-removing police from schools-is not a good idea. Not good at all.

The police on campuses in North Little Rock-they’re called Resource Officers-are authorized to carry weapons on school grounds and make arrests when needed. It’s called security. More of it, not less of it, is needed all across the country. It’s hard to understand why anyone would object to armed guards on campus during the daylight hours when you don’t hear anybody object to armed guards patrolling the stadiums on Friday Night Lights. Is security a good thing at football games but a bad thing during second period? Somebody please explain that one.

The City of North Little Rock now pays 100 percent of the cost of having a cop at six schools in town, which runs the city more than $400,000 every year. If the city council wants to ask the school district to share in that expense,that sounds reasonable enough.

But the news story said that if negotiations with the school district aren’t productive, the city council would consider recommendations “regarding continuation of the city’s funding” for those police officers. That’s not reasonable at all.

Surely something can be worked out, y’all. Members of the council say they don’t want to end the policy. The folks at the school board say the police are important on campus. Parents want their kids looked after at school. Cops on campus would seem to be approved by all. It’s the cost that’s the rub.

As somebody once said about another government program back in the 1990s, let’s mend it, not end it. The safety of our kids is too important to kick the police off school campuses because of a little thing like money. And that certainly is a little thing compared to the safety of our kids.

Editorial, Pages 16 on 05/01/2013

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