It's fair to ask whether recommendations of the governor's commission on school safety, issued early this month in a 124-page report, will lead to lasting and significant influence on the safety of students, faculty and staff in the state's 238 school districts or their 1,046 schools.
Gov. Asa Hutchinson has made clear he views school safety as a local consideration, aided where possible by the state but not in need of mandates from the folks in Little Rock. Who knows whether others, namely state lawmakers, agree with that assessment? But Arkansans have traditionally preferred local control when it comes to schools.
Hutchinson's task force included Washington County Sheriff Tim Helder and Rogers Fire Chief Tom Jenkins, education professionals, security and school facility experts as well as mental health professionals.
Their 30 recommendations are too voluminous to detail here (see https://bit.ly/2rDOP4e). They promoted measures for mental health and prevention, including the availability of more counseling; safety audits, emergency operations plans and drills; improved communication; and funding ideas for physical security measures within schools.
But looming over the report is what the state and local school districts should do about guns: Is the tool of choice for attackers just part of the problem (or THE problem, as some suggest) or should guns be considered part of the school safety solution?
The commission recommended that "no campus should ever be without an armed presence when staff and children are attending class or a major extra-curricular activity." Helder, who chaired the commission's law enforcement committee, explained the recommendation last June.
"Understanding that there is a difference between feeling safe and being safe, we believe true safety can only be accomplished with a paradigm shift, where we recognize and acknowledge the vulnerability of schools in today's society," Helder said.
"It has become apparent that a rapid armed response, from within the school building, saves lives. The faster a school shooter is engaged by armed responders, the sooner the situation is halted. This directly translates to lives saved."
The inclusion of that recommendation disappointed Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, whose Arkansas chapter is undoubtedly the most vocal organization on gun issues within the state. Its members want to advance the general cause of school safety. As the name suggests, though, attitudes and laws about guns remain their primary focus. The group clearly wants to reduce gun violence. From their perspective, reducing the number of guns equates to reducing gun violence.
The group decried the report's allowance for armed teachers and staff at schools.
No where does the state commission say school districts must or even should arm teachers or administrators. There appears to be a universal preference for armed law enforcement officers in the schools, but not all school districts can afford it or have a local police agency capable of it. Rather, given the real-world presence of threats to our young people and educators, the commission stresses the common-sense notion that a fast response to an armed invader is most successful when that response involves armed and trained individuals.
How many school shooters have killed themselves as soon as they met resistance from someone who had more than a ruler to throw at them?
It's important to note the recommendations leave a lot of room for school districts and the communities they serve to design a plan that best suits each community's needs.
The commission notes that a "rapid armed response" to a school shooting saves lives. Nobody, at least no one I've heard, disputes that.
So the question really is this: How do school districts ensure a rapid, armed response? Wouldn't proximity be critical? Wouldn't access to a gun be critical to that?
I don't buy the idea that arming everyone makes the situation safer. I also don't buy that eliminating the presence of guns among law-abiding, trained people renders a situation safe.
Commentary on 12/16/2018