Schools or ‘fortresses’?

Can massacres such as the shootings in Newtown, Conn., where 20 students and six educators were killed, be prevented?

Yes, with more gun control, some say. Yes, with more guns, others say.

Following the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary, there have been calls for increased school security, with National Rifle Association (NRA) officials calling for armed guards in schools and state Rep. Paul Battles, R-Cartersville, proposing a bill that would allow school systems to decide whether principals could carry concealed weapons.

Several local teachers and school officials said they didn’t want to talk about guns in schools because of the polarizing nature of the topic. But former Eastside Elementary principal Ty Snyder said increasing the number of guns in schools — some local schools already have school resource officers (SROs) provided through contracts with local law enforcement agencies — is a step toward turning them into “fortresses.”

“You have to be within reason,” Snyder, a retired 23-year educator, said. “Armed guards? You know, maybe more school resource officers, but primarily at the middle and high school level because they’re more use to dealing with in-school issues with students.”

Though armed, SROs are not “armed guards” stationed to prevent tragedies like Newtown, said several school officials.

“The incidents like Newtown are bad, but they’re not common,” Snyder said. “And I sure don’t want to arm principals or teachers. Schools need to be a gun-free zone.”

Incident on school bus

Shelia Patterson, a parent of a student at Woodlawn Elementary School, disagrees. She says her daughter was attending a Boys & Girls Club meeting at Bagley Middle School when the school was “locked down.” No one was allowed in or out of the building on Sept. 11, 2012, when a 16-year-old Mountain Creek Academy student reportedly took a sawed-off shotgun on a school bus. No one was hurt and the gun was never fired, said law enforcement officials.

“But the student could have easily gotten off the bus at Bagley and done something terrible,” Patterson said. “As a parent with a child in the local public school system, I think the government should do everything in their power to protect my child. I don’t know if (armed guards or armed principals) would prevent it, but it would’ve helped protect kids in Newtown and maybe kept the shooting from becoming a huge tragedy. Principals and teachers deserve to protect themselves and protect the kids. And I would happily pay taxes to fund it.”

State Superintendent John Barge said he does not support armed guards in a Dec. 22, 2012, press release.

There are “already ... many armed (SROs) in our schools today and they have become part of the school community,” Barge said. “They are in no way ‘armed guards’ that would give students, teachers and parents a sense of fear. We are here to educate and protect students and having armed guards at the front of the building is not the solution.”

What might be a “sense of fear” for some would represent “peace of mind” for Christy Henderson.

“He accidentally brought a utility knife to school,” Henderson said of her son, one of her three children at Brookwood Elementary School. “He got suspended for that — it was my fault for packing it in there when we moved and forgetting to take it out before I sent him to class. He was innocent, but a weapon still slipped through and that could be scary with the wrong kid. I would recommend having armed guards for that reason ... to do whatever it takes to keep kids safe.

“If that means arming principals, too, do it. You can’t tell me that if a teacher or principal were armed they wouldn’t have saved lives in Newtown. If they were armed, they could’ve gotten one shot off and ended the whole thing. I don’t think we can ever prevent these things, but we can stop them before they become tragedies.”

That’s exactly what happened on Aug. 30, 2010, at Sullivan Central High School in Blountville, Tenn., said Gene White, a Northwest Whitfield High School graduate and resident of Dalton.

“I’m sure that no one outside of our immediate region has ever heard the story, because the only person who was shot and killed was the gunman,” White said. “These types of stories don’t fit the narrative of those who want gun-free zones and go ignored by the national media.”

TriCities.com, an online news source, reported, “On Monday morning, Thomas Richard Cowan loaded 13 bullets into two handguns, left his German shepherd chained to the fence and drove eight miles from his home in Kingsport to Sullivan Central High School. Whatever his mission, it was the 62-year-old Vietnam veteran’s final drive.

“For about an hour, Cowan’s armed invasion spread panic throughout the school before a burst of officers’ gunfire brought him down. No others were injured.”

“Yeah, I would recommend (even more) trained professionals,” White said.

Columbine changed things

Snyder says SROs are enough.

“We’ve always had a great relationship with our SROs,” he said. “When SROs came into school, they usually had a weapon on them. Sometimes they would leave them in their car, but mostly they had it on them. Not because they necessarily needed to be armed, just because they had them. It’s just part of who they are … I think our schools are very safe places. After the Columbine shooting (in Colorado in 1999), schools put security plans in place and we review those all the time — drill it yearly, practice it. I’m sure they’re being reviewed now after Newtown.”

As state lawmakers prepare to discuss how to prevent another Newtown (the Legislature convenes on Monday), some might be having a “knee-jerk reaction,” Snyder said.

“You have to step back and think about what’s best for the students,” he said. “There might be situations where more security is needed — you never say never — but you do the best you can. You have to be appropriate with the community and school ... you have to be open but safe … that’s what a principal has to think about. There’s not a one-size-fits-all bill that will solve the problem.”

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Schools or ‘fortresses’?

As nation talks school security, views differ locally on possible solutions

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