Introducing armed guards into school will not make them safer, but it will increase racial discrimination and put more students into the school-to-prison pipeline.

Courtesy of Think Progress:  

The article, by Erik Eckholm, surveyed the rise of “school resource officers” (policemen or non-police armed guards) in American school districts since the late 1990s. Eckholm found little to suggest that officers had made schools safer; he quotes University of Maryland school crime expert Denise C. Gottfredson as saying “There is no evidence that placing officers in the schools improves safety.” She concludes, moreover, that “it increases the number of minor behavior problems that are referred to the police, pushing kids into the criminal system.” 

Eckholm assembles ample evidence to support this conclusion: 

Nationwide, hundreds of thousands of students are arrested or given criminal citations at schools each year. A large share are sent to court for relatively minor offenses, with black and Hispanic students and those with disabilities disproportionately affected, according to recent reports from civil rights groups, including the Advancement Project, in Washington, and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, in New York. 

Such criminal charges may be most prevalent in Texas, where police officers based in schools write more than 100,000 misdemeanor tickets each yearaid Deborah Fowler, the deputy director of Texas Appleseed, a legal advocacy center in Austin. The students seldom get legal aid, she noted, and they may face hundreds of dollars in fines, community service and, in some cases, a lasting record that could affect applications for jobs or the military….Black students in the school district in Bryan, [Texas,] [activists] noted, receive criminal misdemeanor citations at four times the rate of white students. 

Strict policies surrounding juvenile crime and delinquency have created what some call a “school-to-prison pipeline,” wherein punishment of students, particularly those of black and Hispanic origin, pushes them out of schools via suspension/expulsion or legal action, making a life of crime more attractive. Criminal sanction is a particularly brutal funnel, as the “collateral consequences” of a youth criminal record can render young people unemployable for years, severely limiting their opportunities to make money legally. 

Perhaps THIS is the real agenda driving this push to put armed guards into our nations schools, after all the conservatives LOVE new prisons, ESPECIALLY when they are privatized.

You know I worked in a school for troubled kids.

At first they just had a lot of unarmed security staff, and the calls to police were occasional. 

But the year they put police officers in the school there was a kid getting hauled away in cuffs at least three times a week.

It is not the officers fault they are trained to deal with conflicts by locking people in cages.

On the other hand teachers are trained to educate children and help them to make choices that will keep them from ever having to lose their freedom.

See the difference?

When the 2nd Amendment bullies the 1st Amendment into submission. NRA brings 20 armed gunmen into National Press Club to intimidate reporters. Update!

Cover me guys, these reporters are armed with dangerous looking pens.

Courtesy of the Washington Post:  

The gun-lobby goons were at it again. 

The National Rifle Association’s security guards gained notoriety earlier this year when, escorting NRA officials to a hearing, they were upbraided by Capitol authorities for pushing cameramen. The thugs were back Tuesday when the NRA rolled out its “National School Shield” — the gun lobbyists’ plan to get armed guards in public schools — and this time they were packing heat. 

About 20 of them — roughly one for every three reporters — fanned out through the National Press Club, some in uniforms with gun holsters exposed, others with earpieces and bulges under their suit jackets. 

In a spectacle that officials at the National Press Club said they had never seen before, the NRA gunmen directed some photographers not to take pictures, ordered reporters out of the lobby when NRA officials passed and inspected reporters’ briefcases before granting them access to the news conference. 

The antics gave new meaning to the notion of disarming your critics.

I just saw Dana Milbank talking about this on Hardball and I almost could not believe my ears. (I will link to that interview when it become available.)

I almost don't know how to respond to this, but I am so angry I am spitting nails!

The idea that these NRA assholes would use their 2nd Amendment rights to bully reporters into NOT being able to exercise their 1st Amendment rights, demonstrates the seriousness of what is going on in this country right now.

And by the way if you are so paranoid that you find yourself terrified to face a roomful of unarmed reporters without a phalanx of armed guards around you, perhaps you are not the best person to be telling schools how to keep our children safe.

Update: As promised here is the interview with Dana Milbank on Hardball.

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NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre gets an unexpected grilling on Fox news. Is no place safe for the head gun nut anymore?

Courtesy of Business Insider:

 Here's the most contentious exchange: 

LAPIERRE: The President's kids are safe, and we're all thankful for that. 

WALLACE: They also face a threat that most people do not face. 

LAPIERRE: Tell that to the people in Newtown! Tell that to the people in Newtown. 

WALLACE: Do you really think that the President's children are the same kind of target as every schoolchild in America? I think that's ridiculous, and you know it, sir. 

Wallace pressed LaPierre on whether he believes every schoolchild is entitled to armed protection. He also challenged the NRA chief on the gaps in that theory: How they're not protected at the movie theater, the mall, and other places after they leave school. 

LaPierre stumbled, saying, "Which is why we need to do everything else I'm talking about." 

The last contentious exchange came when Wallace disputed LaPierre's logic that only "elite, out of touch" politicians have armed protection next to them. Wallace pointed out that LaPierre also traveled with armed guards to his appearance on "Fox News Sunday." 

"Does that make you an elite, and out-of-touch elite, because you have security?" Wallace said.

Wow! You know if you can't even expect soft ball questions at Fox News, that is when you KNOW the country has turned against you on this issue.

My hat is off to Chris Wallace for holding this douchebag's feet to the fire.

School hires armed guard who promptly leaves firearm unattended in student bathroom. Don't you kids feel safer already?

Chatfield school security guard Clark Arnold

Courtesy of Raw Story:  

A prosecutor in Lapeer, Michigan says, “No harm, no foul,” after a charter school took the National Rifle Association’s (NRA) advice and hired a armed security guard who promptly left his handgun unattended in a student bathroom. 

Chatfield School co-directors Matt Young and Bill Kraly announced last week that they had hired retired Lapeer County Sheriff’s Dept. firearms instructor Clark Arnold as a security guard in response to the December mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. 

“It’s a tremendous asset to the safety of our students,” Young told WNEM in a report that aired on Tuesday. 

But by Wednesday, the school had admitted to The Flint Journal that the retired firearms instructor had made a “made a breach in security protocol” and left his unloaded handgun unattended in the school restroom “for a few moments.” 

Gee it certainly did not take long for somebody to illustrate what is wrong with the idea of increasing  the number of armed guard in the school or arming the teachers. 

More guns in an environment filled with children means more accidental shootings and more injured children.  If anything this will result in an INCREASE in gun related deaths rather than a decrease.

It certainly doesn't take a genius to figure that out!