Protect schools with pros, not armed teachers

As in all areas of life, a strong security presence is a deterrent.

It’s become painfully clear that American schools need tighter security. Arming teachers is not the way to achieve that. But until we make meaningful progress in eliminating combat weapons like the AR-15-style semiautomatic guns favored by those who want to kill many quickly, we have to accept the 21st-century reality that schools have to be more fortified.

That means stopping a threat before it makes its way into the corridors and classrooms. If that requires securing a school’s perimeter and entrances with more armed, professional security personnel, so be it.

As in all areas of life, a strong security presence is a deterrent.

We already ask a lot of teachers. Above all, we entrust them with the development and education of children. And that is where their efforts should stay. We should not expect them to carry weapons and use them in the chaos that breaks out once a shooter bent on mayhem begins blasting away inside the school.

Living through these school shootings, whether it’s watching them on television from a distance, as in Parkland, Florida, earlier this month, or feeling the devastation close to home, as in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting of 2012, has understandably stirred anxiety in students, parents and educators.

Teachers don’t need the added anxiety of being prepared to take down an armed maniac.

There’s no upside to this proposal, which now is being touted by President Trump. None.

Trained police officers, professionals who undergo ongoing training, make mistakes that have fatal consequences. The potential for panic and tragedy would be there every time a fire alarm rang. The first time a teacher shot an innocent person it would become clear this was a horrible idea.

Teachers in school shootings have displayed their valor and their quick thinking in many ways. Some have died protecting the children in their charge. They’ve directed children to safety. They’ve acted quickly to lock doors. And some have stood as shields. Exchanging fire with a heavily armed intruder is not their area of expertise.

Teachers are educators. Their expertise, their calling, is to impart knowledge and to work with children. Instead of arming them, empower teachers to identify, intervene, counsel and refer troubled students to other experts.

The way to ease the anxiety that has permeated and sullied the school setting is to tighten security at schools. And many schools have taken steps, among them installing locks, bulletproof glass, metal detectors and more rigid screening of visitors.

That’s how security can be achieved. When parents, teachers and students know their school is adequately protected, the anxiety will eventually diminish.

Of course the best way to enhance security is to keep military-grade weaponry out of the general consumer market. Weapons like the AR-15 semiautomatic rifle, the favored tool of the mass shooter, belong on the world’s battlefields, not in some brooding teenager’s closet.

Nor in our schools.