Armed school staff

[Longcolt44]

This is not a post to say which state is better than any other. It is a post to maybe put forward which states need more work. Some of these states that allow armed staff in schools may surprise you.

[AMCHornet]

I went to high school in Arizona from 2009-2013. My school had one resource officer armed with a pistol. Open carry. I avoided him because he was a little scary, but I knew he was a nice guy. He was in charge of school discipline. The thought never occurred to me that he was armed to protect us students from an outside threat. I always thought he was armed for self-protection against a trouble-maker student who might try to attack him while he dragged them into detention. Kids got busted for things like fighting or drugs, so I figured the gun was for his personal defense when apprehending such matters. He didn't make me feel safer or in more danger...he just existed. I didn't think much of it.

In fact, I don't recall ever thinking, "Some crazy guy may come into the school and shoot us." I remember lockdown drills in case a bad person came into the school perhaps trying to hurt people, and I remember latching school doors leading to the outside to prevent random local homeless people from coming inside, but that was about it.

I was busy thinking about other things related to the complete and total dysfunction of the public school system at that time. I can go on....and on....and on...about what a failure that was. Unrelated to this arguement though. Most other students were the same as me. We were busy with our lives and trying to get through the bullshit of post-No Child Left Behind public education. I didn't know anybody who was afraid of getting shot at school. We all felt pretty safe, actually. We feared threats from WITHIN the school, not from without. We feared other students. Bullies. Mainly we feared getting into a fight or getting into trouble. In those days of public school bullshit, you got into trouble for anything and your word was worthless to protect yourself. We feared that corruption.

So I really don't understand these recent high school graduates only a five years younger than me who say they spent their entire school years living in fear of being shot.

[Junk Yard Dog]

SHit! Were the hell did you go to school, south Bronx in the 70's? Sounds like a day at Attica. Today our local schools have uniformed police on campus, they are armed as any deputy sheriff is. Sidearms, and heavier weapons in their vehicles. We had none of that shit when I was a kid, but then society hadn't yet deteriorated to the point it's at today. Kids living in fear of death and violence from other kids, armed guards, people being dragged off to " the hole" to correct their behavior,that sounds like a typical day in prison. I will gladly polish the ground with my knees thanking the Lord that I am not a kid in this shitty era.

[InOmaha]

It shows my state as red, but that is only for teachers and staff. Each of our high schools has an armed resource officer assigned to it. The schools have ~2,500 students so they are basically small towns.

There is a push to allow teachers and staff to have access to firearms in the smaller school districts of the state. Some districts have less total K through 12 students then my daughter's graduating class. Those districts tend to be in areas with no police departments and who rely on county sheriffs. Response times can be anywhere from immediate to an hour depending on where the deputies are located.

In that case it makes sense to train the principle or a teacher and put a gun in a locked safe in the main office. If there was a fire or medical emergency, there's a good chance the principle and several of the teachers are on the volunteer fire department too.

People in smaller towns wear several hats.

[AMCHornet]

SHit! Were the hell did you go to school, south Bronx in the 70's? Sounds like a day at Attica. Today our local schools have uniformed police on campus, they are armed as any deputy sheriff is.

Nope. Public high school, 2009-2013. Flagstaff Utified School District, Flagstaff, Arizona. City population 50,000. High school population 1500. The school was in a working class neighborhood which meant poor and mostly hispanic but the student body was diverse at about 1/3 white, 1/3 hispanic, and 1/3 Navajo or Hopi.

One armed resource officer assigned to the school at all times. Clearly open carry pistol. His car was always parked right out front and there may have been a shotgun inside. I don't know if any teachers were armed. I never found out if they were and the thought never crossed my mind. I always assumed the armed resource officer was to control students in case a student tried to attack him or another student. I never thought his purpose was to protect us from an outside threat. I never thought of an "active shooter" situation.

I worried more about whether my next class would be above freezing because the district had no money to repair the heaters and many class rooms were without heat in winter. And yes, it gets cold in Flagstaff. I remember one day my sophomore year where it was -17 outside and my 1st period class was barely 30 degrees. Later that day it warmed up to about 35 outside and we OPENED THE WINDOWS to heat the classroom.

I worried more about helping my beloved history teacher who I was a teacher's aide for. The district had no money to supply teachers with paper and other supplies, and her sallary wasn't evenough for her to both buy paper and feed her children. I had a car and an after school job, so I would make runs to the store and buy her paper out of my own pocket to keep the class going. I wasn't the only student doing that. That was 2012 in the United States of America, in a state run by Republicans who ran for office on a platform of "balancing the budget". They balanced it all right....by cutting schools.

I worried more about my job. I drove to school at 7 AM, drove home at 1:00-2:30 PM depending on the day, ate diner, drove to work at 3:30 PM, worked until 9 PM, and made it home before 10 PM most nights. I did my homework and got to bed around midnight. The money I made that didn't go towards gas and supporting my teachers went into savings for college. I saved up $18,000...that dissapeared on the first tuition check. One check. Seven more came. Half of them were paid for by scholarships I got for my 3.8 GPA. My parents and I went in debt for the rest. I graduated with $27,000 on my head that I'll have paid off when I'm about 30 given the shitty pay for college graduates these days and my parients will likely carry their debt to the grave. Until then, the idea of buying a house, a new car, getting married, or having health or dental insurance are totally out of the question for me. $12/hr that employers tell me I should be grateful for doesn't make all that happen.

No, getting shot in school was not on my mind. Economics were on my mind. Welcome to being a millenial. We're not all "snowflakes".

[Junk Yard Dog]

You don't have to be a millennial to be a snowflake, otherwise it would be hard for me to explain all the 40-70 somethings I know who are super size snowflakes. Ha! Ends at 30? Good luck with that, because then comes car payment, insurance, mortgage payment, and if you start a family then all the massive costs kids bring ( just ask your parents how expensive kids are) There is no such thing as a free education, aside from what the snowflakes think, somebody has to pay for it, in this case you and your parents with a bit of help from the scholarships, and I bet it was just a bit. You know your parents can't take that debt to the grave, once you finish paying yours then theirs is your responsibility, that's what kids who are worth a fuck are for. Your job may be low pay and crap for a college grad right now, but you are young, all young grads without CEO daddy's start out at the bottom. Your earning potential will rise as your experience does, by the time you are 40, assuming the powers that be don't clusterfuck the world into oblivion, you will likely have a job that allows you to help your folks out of the financial hole they dug to help you.

[Junk Yard Dog]

I asked a kid I know who attends what was once my high school back in the dim mists of the past what the place is like today. Greenhaven state correctional facility apparently.. Armed uniformed police ( plural) metal detectors, lockdowns and active shooter drills ( reminds me of the duck and cover shit from the 50's) security doors, ID tags, locker searches, patdowns, and bag searches. What a fucking way to grow up, no wonder so many of the kids end up fucked in the head. The only thing that seemed to be a positive is they stopped selling pig slop as food in the cafeteria, of course it's all some sort of healthy shit now, no bacon! My old district is one of the highest funded in the state and probably a good portion of the country, students do not buy supplies for the teachers. Typical of school districts within 80 miles of NYC, and we have some of the highest school tax's in the country, now I know what some of it is paying for. The sheriffs office, complete with armored vehicles, is located right behind the high school and only minutes from the other schools in the district. The county jail is part of the sheriffs complex so anyone who tries something at the school will be hooked, booked and cooked so fast it might go unnoticed. Oh yea, cameras everywhere so no more hop heads smoking weed in odd corners today.

[Junk Yard Dog]

Oh, I forgot, they don't use money anymore, not real money anyway. They all have a card for food, the parents load the card with money, and they use it to pay for lunch. No more school bully taking kids lunch money, for that matter the school bully is probably doing time, or shot full of behavior modifying drugs. I had a real job when I was in high school so I always had a nut of cash to pay my way, and the school bully would have ended up in the cemetery if he tried a grab for it. That would have gotten me time today, seems even defending yourself if a crime in schools, never mind baiting the bully into a fight because you didn't like the son of a bitch, and then throwing him down the stairs. Cocksucker ended up dead a few years back, no, I didn't do it and have witnesses to back that up, drugs did it, asshole was doing H at his age and OD'd, Karma's a bitch.


The money thing bothers me, like they are teaching kids to be comfortable with spending plastic they don't earn. I can see that leading to issues with credit cards in future years when they are expected to pay it back. I learned to understand the value of money because I worked my ass off for it, cash in hand, I didn't spend what wasn't earned by me. We were allowed to leave the school to go into town up the street for food if we wanted so no pig slop for me, I ate well. Todays kids are not allowed that, a parent has to come sign them out to leave the campus.

[ffuries]

I know around here, the middle schools and high schools have had armed resource officers since before 2000. I honestly don't know when it started in Florida. I know as a military brat there were instances where we had armed Military Police on school buses (Talking M16s here). That was due to protestors, or heightened terrorist threats in the 70s and early 80s.

My kids got 4 years or so of free college (Chapter 35 benefits) due to me being a 100% disabled veteran. I was like wait, I do 23 years, become disabled, forced to retire, and they pay for your college, where the hell is my take in this. LOL!

Kids nowadays have more issues, whether real or imagined, then they did when I was a kid. When I was in school there was maybe one or two on meds. Walk into a class today and over half have issues and are on meds of some sort. Students even feared or respected their teachers in my day, todays youth don't care, don't listen, and know everything. My daughter is a para for a Pre K class, OMG the stories she comes home with. Kids telling the teacher to fuck off, walking out of the class, having mental meltdowns. One kid didn't get his way, pulled it out and started pissing on the other kids. These are friggin Pre K kids, imagine them a few years down the road..........Scary thought.

[Junk Yard Dog]

...and you wonder why I keep a loaded revolver under my pillow as I sleep with one eye open....

[awalker1829]

When I was in high school, the only time cops were on school campuses (public or private) were football games. Maybe a few public schools had resource officers. In our county, SROs did not wear patrol uniforms-they wore uniform polo shirts as the sheriff and school administrators did not feel that patrol uniforms were appropriate in the school environment.

[AMCHornet]

I strive to be a political and social leader among my generation (born 1985-2005) and I work to increase mutual understanding between my generation and older generations.

Please ask me if you have specific questions about modern young people. How they feel, what may have caused those feelings, why they do the things they do, etc.

[Rowdy1]

SHit! Were the hell did you go to school, south Bronx in the 70's? Sounds like a day at Attica. Today our local schools have uniformed police on campus, they are armed as any deputy sheriff is. Sidearms, and heavier weapons in their vehicles. We had none of that shit when I was a kid, but then society hadn't yet deteriorated to the point it's at today. Kids living in fear of death and violence from other kids, armed guards, people being dragged off to " the hole" to correct their behavior,that sounds like a typical day in prison. I will gladly polish the ground with my knees thanking the Lord that I am not a kid in this shitty era.

I did go to school in the South Bronx but it was in the 1940’s and 50’s. Not only were kids back then better behaved and had manners. They teachers could smack you. If you were a wise ass any adult in the neighborhood could whack you and you got it worse when you got home. Almost every High School had a Rifle Team. We’d be on public transportation with our rifles in cases. Today if I had a kid he would be in a private school away from many of these out of control animals in the classrooms encouraged by the liberal feel good approach to,the world.

[Junk Yard Dog]

Things fell apart there by the late 60's and went right over the rail in the 70's. I would get horror story's from a family member who taught there, and a few fireman who were dealing with the arson epidemic during that garden time when the Bronx was literally burning. One of my now retired customers was on the job down there during that time at the 41, 41'st precinct known as Fort Apache, now that man has some wild storys. Lindsey and Beame packed the area with welfare cases, later converted to Fed section 8, remember when Carter visited in '77? The footage looks like something out of a bombed WW2 city. Working in a school there entitled the teacher to combat pay by that time.

[Brake Weight]

When I was in high school, the only time cops were on school campuses (public or private) were football games. Maybe a few public schools had resource officers. In our county, SROs did not wear patrol uniforms-they wore uniform polo shirts as the sheriff and school administrators did not feel that patrol uniforms were appropriate in the school environment.

This. There was no need for an armed or uniformed presence on campus. When the ‘cops’ showed up he was only bringing somebody back. LOL. The truant officer had to do something finally. We played a cross town rival once and there was a fight break out between ‘groups’ and a .22 was discharged into the ground. This was 1993. Tensions have eased but the LEO presence has not.

This past weekend I attended my oldest kid’s high school game. It is the next town over from where I grew up that we now live. This game was also a cross town rival and against an ‘inner city’ school there. Reminded me of that Goldie Hawn movie she did in the mid ‘80s. Anyway, there was 16 sheriff deputy cars parked in front of the entrances. You had to zig zag around them to get in because of they way they were parked. It psychologically worked, too. No issues inside. When we were leaving late in the 3rd quarter the officers had apprehended some punk in the parking lot that was now worried about his momma. LOL.

[Lavitias]

At my Highschool 04-08 we had the one armed resource officer but I think he was more there just to be there and because he helped with the Drug searches and we had a security guard but all he really did was hand out parking tickets to students that hadn't bought a parking lot pass. Outside of that though I don't remember us ever fearing being shot while at school or anything and the drug searches only started because I guess a lot of the football team tested dirty one year.

[AMCHornet]

At my Highschool 04-08 we had the one armed resource officer but I think he was more there just to be there and because he helped with the Drug searches and we had a security guard but all he really did was hand out parking tickets to students that hadn't bought a parking lot pass. Outside of that though I don't remember us ever fearing being shot while at school or anything and the drug searches only started because I guess a lot of the football team tested dirty one year.

Basically my same experience. You are a little older than me, but we both went to high school around the same time and in the same state of Arizona, I presume.

[Lavitias]

Nope Ohio here.

[AMCHornet]

Ah, I had you confused with somebody else.

[Rowdy1]

Things fell apart there by the late 60's and went right over the rail in the 70's. I would get horror story's from a family member who taught there, and a few fireman who were dealing with the arson epidemic during that garden time when the Bronx was literally burning. One of my now retired customers was on the job down there during that time at the 41, 41'st precinct known as Fort Apache, now that man has some wild storys. Lindsey and Beame packed the area with welfare cases, later converted to Fed section 8, remember when Carter visited in '77? The footage looks like something out of a bombed WW2 city. Working in a school there entitled the teacher to combat pay by that time.

Left the Bronx in early 1960’s. Parts of it looked like photos of Berlin in 1945. The reason was rent control. The City “ Democrats “ would raise property taxes on rent controlled buildings. The landlord couldn’t pay the property taxes and would walk away. Utilities would be turned off. Druggies and POS would move in and would burn many of these buildings down. Also under the Dems hugh expansion of Welfare in mew projects that would look like a war zone after 2-3 years.