AUGUSTA, Maine — Education Commissioner Stephen Bowen on Tuesday asked a school safety group to study state laws and Department of Education policies with an eye toward identifying areas where there could be improvements.
On Monday, Bowen asked local school districts to review their crisis response plans and make improvements where necessary, but his directive to the Maine Schools Emergency Preparedness Resource Team Tuesday calls for a broader look, according to DOE spokesman David Connerty-Marin. The team includes education officials, law enforcement officers and state and local emergency management agency directors.
“This group meets once a month and they are routinely reviewing opportunities for improving emergency management for schools,” said Connerty-Marin. “We have good systems in place, but it seemed like in the wake of Friday’s shootings like a good time to do a top-to-bottom review. The commissioner asked them to look at what can be done in both the short and long terms.”
Issues will include everything from what security features are included when schools are built — such as double doors and video cameras — to training of teachers and administrators. Connerty-Marin said Bowen also wants to increase the number of schools that conduct lockdown drills in addition to fire evacuation drills. Whatever ideas the group identifies could become bills for the Legislature to consider when it convenes in January.
Every Maine school district is required to have emergency management plans — including a protocol for lockdowns — and to update them annually. Schools also must have plans for how to communicate with concerned parents during an emergency.
Dwane Hubert, director of the Maine Emergency Management Agency’s Division of Mitigation Preparedness and Recovery, said the organization urges school districts to work closely with local police and rescue organizations because plans should be tailored to local circumstances.
“What we advocate for is an all-hazards plan which includes all security-type issues,” said Hubert. “Schools should walk through those in the form of an exercise to test the plan. The reason that is so important is because there’s always going to be a period of time between when an event occurs and when first responders can get there. Once the first responders get there, they have protocols that they can use, but a school needs to have a well-rehearsed plan and practice that plan.”
Richard Durost, executive director of the Maine Principals Association, said Tuesday that his organization was flooded with calls over the weekend and early this week from teachers and administrators who were seeking advice.
He said because school security is an issue dealt with by local school boards, there is a wide range of measures in place across Maine. Durost said most districts already conduct lockdown drills and that some keep all exterior doors locked during the school day and require visitors to buzz in to the main office when they arrive. But even in the wake of one of the nation’s most deadly school shootings, he said there is a balance to be struck.
“I think there’s a real attempt to balance the need for security while trying to make sure schools are a welcoming place for parents, students and community members,” said Durost. “You do everything you can without turning your school into a prison with steel bars. What has happened since last Friday is that everyone sits back and reminds themselves what they do have for a policy.”
Durost said in his experience, most lockdown plans involve keeping children in locked classrooms or wherever they are when tragedy strikes as opposed to trying to evacuate them.
“Most classrooms do not have an outside door to exit from,” said Durost. “While something is going on and somebody has a gun, you don’t want anyone going out into the hallways. You try to keep the kids as quiet and safe as you can in the safest part of the room, and not to leave the room until you know it’s safe. I would suggest that’s a rationale for locking the door and pulling the shades.”
Durost said schools could increase the number of its school resource officers, who typically are hired in partnerships between schools and local police departments. Though Durost didn’t have data on how many Maine schools have resource officers, he said the number has decreased since the 1990s when many of those positions had been funded temporarily by federal grants. Today, many of the state’s school resource officers focus their efforts on students older than the ones who perished Friday in Connecticut.
“I don’t know that a school resource officer could have prevented this from happening,” said Durost. “I’m not aware of any elementary schools in Maine that have a full-time resource officer.”
He said that while students, parents, teachers and administrators across Maine are saddened by Friday’s shootings, schools in general remain safe places for kids.
“As tragic as this is, we do need to remind ourselves that this is still a relatively rare occurrence,” he said. “Happening even once is too many times, but I think that most days everywhere, particularly in Maine, our kids are as safe as could be when we send them off to a public school in the morning.
“As a teacher or principal, you can never care for a student in exactly the same way that the parent does, but I would guess that they care for those children almost as much.”
If states and school boards will not authorize the arming of those inside the schools, the “lock down” drills are all the same, “lock the door and hide”…….and pray you don’t get killed.
THAT is what schools are……but at least they are “warm and “inviting” to the public……and kill zones if a psycho gets inside.
NRA member? Or just a nutcase?
Is there something I described that is inaccurate? I work in a school, and EVERY school I have been in had the same basic “lock down” plan, and it is pretty much lock the door and hide. Do you doubt this?
You can cry and whine about guns all you want, but the principal of the CT school walked toward gun fire with zero weapon. IF she had a gun, nothing worse would have happened, and she may have possibly saved not only her life but the lives of countless children.
Let’s see: hundreds of kids in a school, maybe ONE gun (if the school has an onsite police officer), and the plan is to lock your classroom door and hide. If a nutjob gets into a classroom(not that hard with a gun), you are sitting ducks. That is how it is. Deny reality all you want. Those of us in education live this every day and can only hope that it doesn’t happen at our school.
It is funny(or pathetic) that you would call me a nutjob for wanting a gun to defend myself and children in a school. I suppose you would try to “talk down” the shooter or wait in the corner under a desk waiting to get shot…….yep, that works really well. If you would prefer to encounter a psycho intent on killing you and others without weapon, you go right ahead. I prefer to be armed.
The real question here is why this person was let into this school to begin with… didn’t he have to ring a bell to get in? when this question is answered it will better solve how to keep these people out… there are other solutions than to add guns in schools, and what happens when one of those gun toting teachers kills an innocent child accidently? more precautions besides guns should be taken before this extreme, I don’t want my sons teachers toting guns, if this ever happens I will be pulling my child from public school and the public school will be paying me back my taxes to homeschool, say goodbye to teachers jobs..
Why don’t you just do your research? Open a separate window in google and answer for yourself how Lanza got into the school building (hint:no one let him in) and then come back and review your statement and let us know how foolish you feel.
Some points:
1. To TJones: The principal probably wouldn’t have had time to access a gun even if she had one. Didn’t do the shooter’s mother much good as her own gun was used to murder her. More guns in the school mean more people in schools have access to guns that can be used in harmful ways. 2. To Maureen: The answer as to why the shooter was “let in” is that he wasn’t let in, he blasted his way in with his guns. 3. The Sandy Hook school had great protocols and it didn’t protect them against this type of assault, although it did save lives having the teachers hide the students. We’ve been told from crisis planners that shooters will move on when a door is locked or their access is blocked. 4. I work in a school and would not want to be armed nor would I want my colleagues armed. I would be open to the idea of a school resource officer who was though.
“1. To TJones: The principal probably wouldn’t have had time to access a gun even if she had one. Didn’t do the shooter’s mother much good as her own gun was used to murder her. More guns in the school mean more people in schools have access to guns that can be used in harmful ways.
____________________________________________________
The gun would be carried, not kept in a drawer somewhere. I would also certainly not force teachers to carry a gun, but they should be allowed to do so (with whatever prerequisite training…not just a concealed carry course).
We will never know if a gun may have helped the principal, will we (she ran toward gunfire without a weapon and died). With a weapon, the outcome would not have been any worse, and I would say would probably have been better. Also, you realize that more guns in the schools mean “more access to guns to be used TO DEFEND THE CHILDREN AND STAFF from whackos”
The shooter’s access to the school was blocked, but that didn’t stop him. You would be “open” to the idea of a school resource officer? So your school would at least have one gun onsite. Trust me, in a bigger school especially, take all the help you can get.
I believe that the principal and vice principal of the school should be required to be armed. they are already the top authority figures in the school.
and teachers that want to carry a weapon, have gone through the training, and taken a psych test, should be allowed and encouraged to carry.
That seems to be your answer to everything. You and the rest of the right wing. Everyone carry a gun and we’ll make sure the wild west arises once more. Somehow I think this society should be more civilized than that.
you believe that society should be more civilized than that.
but the real world is not civilized just yet, as evidenced by this most recent atrocity.
There will ALWAYS be evil people in the world.
the only thing that stands between evil and the innocent is good people with the means to do so.
Nah, just get rid of all the guns so only the bad guys have them. If you encounter one, just call 9-1-1, no problem….if you aren’t killed already. These people can live in their delusional world where the guns are the problem, not the crazy people, horrific parenting, etc.
Civilize, ain’t never happening. It is in the human Geno to kill.
Welcome to the jungle baby..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1tj2zJ2Wvg
You realize the wild west is already upon is (think Chicago, Washington DC, New Orleans, Detroit). Chicago has very strict gun laws yet is the most violent city in America. I wonder how that can be?
Certainly not everyone should carry a gun. IF you want to, can legally own one and have the training, then certainly. If you are uncomfortable (don’t “believe” in guns) then don’t carry one. You should not, however, have the right (I know, foreign concept for the left as all they want is to tell everybody else how they need to live) to tell a law abiding citizen what they can or cannot legally do.
” The principal probably wouldn’t have had time to access a gun even if she had one.”
there are biometric safes that read your fingerprints and pop up, gun at the ready.
“Didn’t do the shooter’s mother much good”
and what if the mother was sleeping when he shot her?
” I work in a school and would not want to be armed nor would I want my colleagues armed”
so you’d rather leave your life to luck and fate?
just hope that an assailant doesn’t see you or decides to be “thorough”
and let me ask you this,
If something did happen, what would you wait for?
oh that’s right, you’re told to hide and wait for the police.
the police are just men that have been trained and are armed.
so why not allow teachers that have been trained, have passed the checks, and have ccw’s to carry and be the first and last line of defense against armed conflict in schools.
I think he broke a window . He knew the school as he had gone there when young. No one let him in.
He shot his way in through a window. He was not let in. Yeah, and good luck getting your tax dollars back because you wouldn’t like your son’s teachers toting guns (making your son’s school at least a little safer).
“The real question here is why this person was let into this school to begin with”
you’re joking i hope.
you think that he couldn’t have just as easily shot through a window or shot the lock off of a door?
use your head fool.
A psycho bent on killing is only going to be stopped by someone else with a gun or by himself after carrying out his atrocity.
communities need to be more open to soultions like constant lockdown, ringing a bell, metal detectors, showing ID and leaving it until you leave, calling ahead and letting the school know about appts and picking up your child in advance so there is a list of who is coming and going and school employees should be paying attention to who walks into and who they allow into their schools..
What is “constant lockdown?” Showing id, ringing a bell, etc……..none would have saved these kids and faculty. If a person is intent on killing, he/she is going to do what they can to do that. IF somebody on the inside had a gun, they at least would have a fighting chance.
Ok…let’s just say teachers are armed…what if it’s a teacher who snaps and uses their administration approved firearm to light up their classroom? You think people are howling now…
I understand what you’re saying, though expecting teachers to not only do their already demanding jobs, but also be trained on firearms and be prepared to use them under pressure is just over the top. There’s a big difference between a 4 hour NRA course and hitting a few paper dummies, and shooting an in the flesh, rampaging gunman. Under fire, the chances of missing are good, even for basic (non-elite) police. Hell, even well trained soldiers sometimes freeze up in such a situation.
“..what if it’s a teacher who snaps and uses their administration approved firearm to light up their classroom?”
you already trust your childrens safety to these people.
why not give them the tools they need to really protect them.
yes a security officer trained in these tactics. not a teacher unless they have the experience.
and what if it a behavorially impaired child or irate parent, that reaches for the gun??
YOu want my opinion: This is how I see it working in a school.
A) ankle holsters, not something in a big holster on your side like you are in an old western. Also, I would not require teachers to carry. IF they felt comfortable with it, had the appropriate training, etc then fine. The kids would not even necessarily know who was carrying and who was not. They would not see any guns (and a psycho busting in would have no idea who was armed or not).
…….
I expect a safe school environment, though let’s not confuse that with “protection”. Teachers are there to teach.
we all hope for and expect a safe school environment.
but that doesn’t happen. doesn’t exist, and most likely never will until the liberals stop putting their trust in a security force that is minutes away when seconds count.
Teachers are there to teach, yes.
but they’re also there to protect.
you have 3 clear choices here
either Take away all guns from everyone in the u.s. (including police)
post 2 or more armed gaurds at every school in america
or arm the teachers, who we already trust our childrens safety, survival, and future to.
They are not clear choices. Putting attacks such as these in perspective, and understanding that the likelihood of it happening at ones school is not zero, but minuscule, is necessary. Hysteria and overreactions run amok after tragedies such as these. Cooler heads must prevail.
Though your shallow stereotyping about “the liberals” is not helpful – let’s consider “the conservatives” prioritization when it comes to spending on education and schools. Doing education on the cheap and throwing “greedy” teachers under the bus at every opportunity has become par for the course – not to mention the demonization of public schools as breeding grounds for socialism and turning kids gay. And now schools – many of which are facing budget crises because of lack of funding – are to add either security guards, or weapons for teachers (and I assume taxpayer funded training to use these weapons?)
Since all the kids are cowering in corners, there should be very little in the way of a clear shot at an intruder. I would not expect somebody to shoot if they might hit a child or somebody else, but remember, the intruder is a coward, and having a gun pointed at him might be all it takes for him to shoot himself. As the police indicated Friday, they got on scene and once the gunman heard them in the school, he killed himself.
Again, you want to take your chances with a gun or without?
Given the high risk / low reward, I’d opt for no guns within close proximity of kindergartners. I know all parents wouldn’t agree with that, though I’d think most would.
Exactly.
High risk/low reward? Are you kidding me? What was the risk/reward for the principal and psychologist who WALKED TOWARD THE SOUND OF GUNFIRE WITH ZERO WEAPONS. That was going to end one way. They got killed and they weren’t even protecting children. If I ever had to walk toward gunfire, I would at least like to do it armed.
With that attitude, I wonder if you believe police officers should have guns.
I was referring to the odds on such an attack occurring vs having millions of teachers across the country with guns in classrooms. It’s a huge can of worms to open.
Police are police and teachers are teachers. I don’t want that line blurred. I don’t want to live in a country like that.
I’m with you all the way on this , we trust our teachers and our schools to provide a safe learning environment for our children. It’s moronic that they teach them to hide and do nothing ! Many of these children join the military right after high school and are taught to defend themselves, not hide in a corner. Teacher’s should be armed with more than a piece of chauk !
i don’t believe for one minute you “work in a school” ( other then possibly to pass thru it to check the elevator, heating system etc ) .
Ah yes, the only people who work in schools can only be super educated liberals. Well, there are some of us very educated who would rather be able to protect ourselves and those around us.
The left just makes another knee jerk reaction. This is not a gun issue. Society is much less pleasant than it was decades ago. Family structures are crumbling, no positive role models in their lives, single parents who have XBox as a babysitter. Yeah, the problem is guns…….oh please.
Believe it all you want, but I do, hold a pretty important position and there is nobody in my school more educated than I am. You can’t believe it because I choose to want to protect myself and feel the kids in our care should be as protected as possible? Boy, I hope YOU don’t work in a school since you have such little regard for the safety of those who are in schools (children and adults) on a daily basis.
The tolerant left….priceless…yep, no stereotypes coming from the left.
The problem with fringe wacko’s who see shooting something as the solution to every problem, is that they see it as the solution to every problem. Can you name any public space in the US that is not a ‘kill zone’ according to your definition? I bet you can’t. Which means what exactly? That everyone needs to be armed all the time, everywhere? Gee that sounds like a real safe situation….
Not every public space would consist of 24 kids huddled in a corner with nowhere to go. They really can’t scatter much in a closed space. You don’t see this?
see above— ‘hiding” them worked to save lives.
Yeah, and it did not work for 20 kids. The only thing a teacher can hope for is that a killer will pass by a locked door and that the police show up before the killer takes out too many. You focus on hiding, while some of us focus on protecting….BIG difference there.
And it appears, as reports dribble out , that saved MANY lives on Friday . A nurse was hiding under her desk she saw his legs ; he didn’t see her. A whole classroom was hiding, he went in, saw no one and kept moving.. Another teacher told him the kids were in the gym ( they were hidden). She died, 6 kids escaped with their lives.
Go tell the parents of those 20 murdered children that “hiding” worked. Let me know how that works out for you. You realize there is no complete hiding, right? Where would you hide a school of, say 500 kids? You are delusional in thinking that hiding is the best practice with a gunman in the building. If I had to be in that situation, I would much prefer the kids in the corner, behind me, and I have a gun aimed at the door. If the gunman gets in, I am not going to make it easy for him to murder us. WHY is this not what every rational human being should think?
It appears we have people who prefer to play the victim and not take an active role in saving their own life…….Great.
The sad thing is that there are at least 3 people who disagree with your completely logical post.
Its getting to the point, where I want those folks to be in that situation and that would probably mean their death !! Posts and voting mean something and have consequences.
These psycho killers always choose ” gun-free zones ” full of defenseless people to make a name for themselves. Armed officers or even properly trained teachers with concealed carry permits would most certainly respond within moments, instead of minutes. The response time for the police in CT. was great but still leaves a long time for a killer to do his work.
perhaps a program could be developed so that if a teacher who had a ccp could receive certified training from a police or sheriff’s dept. if an incident happened at many rural schools in Maine, the police are so spread out it would be awhile before they could arrive in sufficient numbers
I’ve been saying that for a long time already.
and today in the news:
”
Texas school district encourages armed teachers for protection”http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18563_162-57559912/texas-school-district-encourages-armed-teachers-for-protection/
and
”
Tennessee Considers Training And Arming Schoolteachers To Protect Against Shootings”
http://news.yahoo.com/tennessee-considers-training-arming-schoolteachers-protect-against-shootings-192556978–politics.html
there will be many who will disagree with this approach . I saw the texas guy on the news he looked and sounded more like a warden then anything else..I wouldn’t want any kid near the man.
Texas is not known for its innovation, but I would like to see a school security officer in our school.
Yes, I certainly would not use Texas as a good example.
I think there are other ways of protecting our children besides gun toting teachers, I certainly don’t think the answer is more guns… I think communities need to be more open to soultions like constant lockdown, ringing a bell, metal detectors, showing ID and leaving it until you leave, calling ahead and letting the school know about appts and picking up your child in advance so there is a list of who is coming and going and school employees should be paying attention to who walks into and who they allow into their schools.. until you can get all abusers out of schools the last thing you need is an abusive teacher toting a gun.. I’m not saying all teachers are abusive but we all know they are there… my son has a school ID what for he doesn’t use it.. I think it’s time he started…
None of your proposed changes would have prevented any of America’s school shootings.
let me just pick this apart.
“constant lockdown”
yes, because “unauthorized access” totally stops criminals.
“metal detectors”
do you honestly think that some criminal bent on killing people is going to stop and put their items through that?
“showing ID”
if a person walks in with a gun, i’m pretty sure that’s their ID and they’ve made their intent clear.
here’s the sad truth to it all.
All of these massacres have been stopped by guns.
weather it be the shooter killing himself, an armed citizen shooting the criminal, or the police ending the carnage.
either take away Every single firearm in the u.s.
Or arm the people we already trust our childrens safety to.
arm the teachers.
none of these massacres have been stopped by another shooting them.
Yes, and look at the Tucson tragedy (Gabby Giffords,etc.) and how that killer was brought down, not by a gun, but by being attacked, physically, and brought down.
It’s a fact that many mass murders like the one we witnessed at the Sandy Hook Elementary School were averted because innocent children and adults were not left defenseless. Here are just a handful of examples:
On Oct. 1, 1997, Luke Woodham, 16, part of a satanic cult, stabbed and bludgeoned his mother before driving her car to Pearl High School in Pearl, Miss., where he shot dead two students and wounded seven others with a rifle he made no attempt to conceal. He then got back into his mother’s car and planned to go to Pearl Junior High School to kill some more. But assistant principal Joel Myrick retrieved a .45-caliber pistol from the glove compartment of his truck and subdued Woodham.
On Jan. 16, 2002, Peter Odighizuwa, 43, of Nigeria, went to the Appalachian School of Law campus in Virginia with a handgun and killed three and wounded three others. At the sound of gunfire, two other students – both police officers – retrieved guns from their cars. Meanwhile, another police officer and former Marine jumped Odighizuwa and disarmed him by the time the other officers got to the scene.
On Aug. 23, 1995, a band of crack cocaine addicts entered a store in Muskegon, Mich., with a plan to kill everyone and steal enough cash and jewelry to feed their habit. One member of the gang shot store owner Clare Cooper in the back four times. He still managed to grab his shotgun and fire on the gang as they fled. They were all apprehended.
On Dec. 9, 2007, a 24-year-old gunman named Matthew Murray launched an attack on the congregants of the New Life Church in Colorado Springs that left two victims dead. A former police officer, Jeanne Assam, a member of the security team for the church, shot Murray 10 times, killing him, as he was shooting at her. Murray had killed four others at a church 70 miles away earlier in the day.
On July 24, 2012, Richard Gable Stevens rented a rifle at a shooting range in Santa Clara, Calif., and herded three employees out the door, saying he intended to kill them. One of the employees, however, was carrying a .45-caliber handgun and shot the assailant.
On Dec. 17, 1991, two men armed with stolen pistols herded 20 customers and employees of a Shoney’s restaurant in Anniston, Ala., into a walk-in refrigerator and locked it so they could rob the establishment. However, one customer was armed with a .45-caliber handgun hidden under a table. He shot one of the gunmen dead. The other robber, who was holding the manager of the restaurant at gunpoint, began firing at the customer. But he was wounded critically by return fire, ending the incident.
On July 13, 2009, an armed man entered the Golden Food Market in south Richmond, shooting and wounding a clerk while firing at store patrons. He was shot by another customer who had a concealed-carry permit, likely saving the lives of eight other people in the store.
On July 29, 2012, Charles Conner shot and killed two people and their dogs at the Peach Tree RV park in Early, Texas. Vic Stacy got a call from one of the neighbors, got his .357 magnum and shot Conner as he fired upon the first police officer to arrive at the scene. Stacy was credited with saving the life of the officer.
The truth is that every single day mass murders are averted by armed civilian
Yet, every time there is a horrendous slaughter like we saw at the Sandy Hook Elementary School, there is a knee-jerk outcry for stricter control of guns.
Wait a minute! The perpetrator of this crime stole his weapons from his mother’s house after murdering her! He tried to buy a rifle days before, but was turned down.
No law could have stopped that short of disarming all law-abiding Americans. And that would just mean more death and carnage – and the end of liberty for all.
The massacre at Sandy Hook could have been minimized, if not averted completely, if just one teacher or administrator at the school was armed – one teacher like you see in that picture from Israel.
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2012/12/how-to-stop-the-slaughter-of-the-innocents/#hi7fzHYwYXKQTHig.99
All excellent ideas. I would go a step further and have a cop in every school during the time children are present. Teachers are trained to teach not be cops. Cops are trained how to protect and to use a firearm. And I am sure that all of the gun enthusiast wouldn’t mind paying an additional fee to pay for it.
How about we let the parents of the school children decide between training and paying a cop and training a teacher to use a weapon. I’d also have the parents pay for this service.
How about we let the professionals decide.
I would rather have a trained cop in the schools than teachers with guns. No doubt about that.
Really. What’s the level of education and critical thinking of a cop / security person? I know that a lot of grammar school didn’t go to top schools, but compares to a rent-a-cop?
I have all the respect in the world for the intelligence of the vast majority of teachers. More than most people.
I was addressing the use of guns in the school. It would need to be a trained person whether a security guard,etc. I think teachers have enough to do without having to train in firearms.
No question teachers have a lot on their plate at all levels. On all the blogs / sites I’ve read, the suggestion has been for teachers / administration that already have CCW / CWP to be able if they want. And anyone who has anything greater than a 22, should store their guns safely at minimum with trigger guards. I’m going to take my own advise and get a trigger guard for my 22.
I think you need to change “I think” to “I feel” .. .. ..
I’m sure you’re well meaning but ..
Who is the rocket scientist that decided to park a police car outside of every school in Bangor on Monday? Seeing that cop sitting there concerned my kids more than if he’d not been there at all.
Betsy Webb
If you cared about your kids you would home school them, so quit your whining.
If you care about your children you will not home school them.
I would rather have a police officer at the school than doing “traffic detail”
It sounds like a pretty smart thing to do in light of what happened in CT last Friday. There are such things as copycat nutcases. Maybe if there had been a police car outside of the school in CT last Friday we wouldn’t be talking about this subject.
I suspect if there had been a police car outside of Sandy Hook then we’d have had one more adult death.
That is possible , we will never know. Nothing about this is certain. Yes, that Adam Lanza could have blown someone else away. It was his intention, that is for sure. You don’t go to an elementary school with that much ammunition otherwise.
The guy was yacking with some teacher. The whole thing was for show and it sent the wrong message.
Sorry Bangorian you and I agree a lot of subjects on these boards, but on this one I think the cops and Webb were doing the best thing. As far as the cop talking to someone is concerned that is what cops do, its part of community policeing
Actually we need them inside ! In plain clothes, packing discreetly.
Cause as we have seen through out the year, and even in Maine, we even have 10 year old’s drawing the heat.
Anyway, let’s get our priorities in line. We can’t police the American households that are allowing their children to develop psychosis from endless violent video watching in the basement. With the even bigger problem of keeping unfit parents from breeding, even if they do posses a college degree and are drawing the high five salary.
///////
To Education Commissioner Stephen Bowen,
Sir, give me the word and Ok and the boys and I will have every school in the State under safe and sound in 24hrs. I can be contacted at,
http://www.sensibility@failedsocialexperiments.com
There has never been a single study that has linked children playing video games to the formation of aggressive behavior. Not one. As far as having armed goons in schools – that’s crazy talk.
Violent video games would not likely affect an otherwise normal mentally stable individual. Do they desensitize? Not sure that is definitive one way or the other. It should be studied more.
As for the evil Adam Lanzo with his aspergers or whatever…..I am sure target shooting and shooting in the video games he played,etc. was not particularly helpful. Did it contribute to an already mentally deescalating mind? Sitting alone in the house, playing those games…..not interacting with real people out there. No one recalls seeing him in years. Not a healthy scenario…..
if prevention is the purpose shouldn’t they be in front , in uniform and visible.?
Depends on who your asking to pay for it. If it’s going to come out of the State budget that’s one things, local police that’s another. Remember we don’t want the children to feel scared. A cop in uniformed ain’t conductive to proper study.
I’m proposing and sending a letter to the Commissioner that we place two armed personal at each school, one dress as a custodian outside making the rounds and one dress in the class A’s inside making the rounds.
Maine will become the nations model.
http://www.sensibility@failedsocialexperiments.com
And that is exactly the problem You can’t have it BOTH ways. You can’t want your kids to be safe and then complain because the police are there..I don’t disagree with you.
i questioned the wisdom of having the police at all the schools in newtown (possibly re- traumatizing kids ) BUT there are crazies out there. One of those crazies even phoned in a bomb threat at one of the churches as they held services!! Who know s maybe there was a bomb threat at the Bangor school> Another “crazie set up a web site in one of the dead children’s name to fund raise (It’s a fake site not endorsed by the family ) That state police have warned of all kinds of fake sites and blogs popping up regarding this case .
When you lock all the doors it is the PARENTS who complain the most about the inconvenience. Maybe now they have a better understanding about why.
If the Cop had not been parked in front of the school on Monday and something had happend you would of been screaming where was the police department to protect my children. You are on of the most whinny complainer on the BDN comments. Find a new hobby. We will all be much better off.
You can do all the planning and lock downs you want, but if someone wants to do this type of carnage it will be hard to stop them. Blaming guns and blocking the sale will do nothing to stop this. Especially in the cities where they will get those types of weapons. What are they going to do put bullet proof glass? Here you can not park up against the gym, which actually makes it worse if there ever was a blast. Focusing so much in the news does not help either, it just gives those who want too, more of a reason.
Bullet proof glass is good idea at ground level. The restrictions on certain weapons and change in policies on gun ownership may reduce this type of mass shooting incident occurring again but will not eliminate. As I have stated on other forums prohibition didn’t work nor have we won the war on drugs. If there is a ” will there is a way”. In fact, just looking around my house, shed and barn there are many weapons that could be used and cause major harm.. The focus needs to be placed on what makes a person” tick and snap” and what can be done to prevent , intervene and educate the community. There are many many pieces to this puzzle and will take the efforts from many disciplines, departments, public and associations.
I agree to some extent but the first thing we need to do is ban the sale and possession of weapons like those used in this slaughter. That will be the biggest start.
I say well said, though bullet proof glass is expensive. The problem also you have some out there that just want to ban any gun or rifle. I know some that just enjoy taking them out, and target practice and the have all their faculties. Although it would of been different he could of had 2 or 3 handguns with clips. Or modified weapons.
I primarily own guns for target practice. It is a fun hobby. I do also believe that, IF I needed to use a gun, I should know how to do so. I do not “fear” the evil guns. They are inanimate objects and don’t just get up, walk around the house shooting people.
A lot of people will get hung up on the mythical “assault weapon.” If it looks mean and nasty, it must be bad. They would ban one on looks yet the next gun over which may not as scary would be ignored (and could easily be just as deadly). Limiting the capacity of magazines does what? This guy was in a school where nobody was there to stop him with a fire arm. So what if he had to stop and change magazines for his rifle 6 times instead of 3. He was dealing with little kids. They were not going to “rush him” during a mag change. Now, if the principal or teacher had a gun, THAT is something that might have curbed the massacre.
It may be expensive but what price tag to we put on human life.
going to put some bulletproof doors on as well i hope.
Bullet proof glass might not be a bad idea, BUT there are still countless schools in our country that are not locked during the day at all. The public can walk in, and you hope they check in with the office. I don’t think limiting the size of magazines for rifles or handguns will do anything (other than make the libs believe they have accomplished something). Limiting the mag capacity would not have stopped what happened in Ct.
I agree with you….if somebody is intent on killing, he/she is going to do so. They will use a gun/knife/homemade explosive/whatever.
Unfortunately, we do not live in a nice world. Those of us who want to protect ourselves from this not so nice world should be allowed to do so….legally of course.
People who, for whatever reason, have decided that they are going to go kill a bunch of people are going to do so.
Short of having armed guards at the door of every school, there isn’t any other way to protect our children.
yes. arm the teachers.
Armed teachers is the safest way !
and when a behavior impaired kid( or an irate parent) reaches for the gun, then what?? When it falls to the floor at circle time among a circle of curious 6 year olds, then what ?
Teachers don’t sit primly at the front of the room at their desk all day. They are active. They are reaching .They are bending .They are in close proximity to students at ALL times..
MANY PARENTS don’t want their kids any where NEAR a gun.( toy or real) because accidents happen. They don’t want their kid in a HOME that has a gun, let alone in a school that has one.They don’t want to promote or facilitate a culture of VIOLENCE.
There was a study posted yesterday addressing the issue of “OH if only someone had a gun”…. ends up being trained in using it doesn’t mean you will .Or if you do, it doesn’t mean you will actually hit the right target.
Remember that recent shoot out in a NYC skyscraper. TRAINED police officers shot 6 civilian trying to get the BAD guy!!.
No I don’t want guns “normalized ” and people desensitized to their use to make some manufacture richer.. Do you two work at Windham Weapons?
keep it in a safe ffs.
Obviously there would be some security such as safes or trigger guards ! I know you must have read where already there’s been cases where guys have run to their car, gotten their gun and stopped more killing ! Give it up !
take the poll at http://www.MaineTV.net/poll.htm
If the schools such a dangerous place, keep the kids home and home school..
i’m sure many people are, and in light of this recent incident, many more will.
That’s where some of the nut jobs indoctrinate their children who they homeschool.
Review school policy, what does that mean?? Go over the paper work that has been in its folder for years.. Yes it is in there. Job done.
I’ve been saying it for quite some time now,
ARM THE TEACHERS.
we already trust them with our childrens lives and well beings, why not give them the tools they need to be that line of defense that is clearly lacking today.
That is a scary thought.
why?
what’s more scary, knowing that the teachers have the tools to protect the students,
or hoping that it’s not your childs school, your childs class that gets attacked by some psycho.
If you were taught when you were little to think before you speak ….you should definitely think before you type……….hellooooooo……tell me you don’t have a drivers license.
which part would you be referring to?
do you just hurl insults when you’re faced with a fact or idea that doesn’t meet your skewed view of reality?
yes, i have a drivers license. I don’t see how that has anything to do with the discussion or article.
Your ability to think amazes me. Which would you prefer teachers to wear hip holsters, shoulder harnesses, or perhaps each desk should be equipped with a concealed shotgun. Then of course what type of guns should they use? Maybe a mounted machine gun?Gee whiz
so… do you have a viable solution or comprehensive counter-argument to my claim?
If not arming the teachers, then what?
disarm everyone?
good luck.
Instate all the gun control you want, criminals will still find, steal, or even make them.
if something bad happens at a school, they should just wait for the cops right? maybe try to run, maybe hide, probably not make it.
gun free zones create victims.
It might not be what someone such as yourself want to hear, but the reality is that there are evil people in the world that want nothing more than to cause death to others.
disarming the people that are supposed to be protecting our children just makes it easier for evil people to carry out atrocities.
Having law enforcement onsite would be a step in the right direction. As far as gun control outside of the school is a separate issue. My comment to this is prohibition did not work. However, changes in policy and gun ownership may yield a safer society. This is a multifaceted problem needing many solutions.
So, regarding gun ownership, what would you propose that would have prevented this tragedy?
Longer wait times to purchase firearms.
Mandatory gun ownership safety class.
Ban on A.R. and only to be used by military or law enforcement.
Public may go to a range and shoot an A.R. with proper education and training.
Stiff penalties for the gun owners when their weapons fall into the “hands” of the wrong people. hence a responsibility law.
People who are on probation need to have their weapons turned in.
Mandatory registration of all guns. No ammo to be sold unless your gun is registered.
longer wait times to purchase firearms….
the guns used in CT were legally purchased by the monster’s mother. they were most likely kept in her home for quite some time prior to the shooting.
Yes …….and he had access to them ………
“Having law enforcement onsite”
define law enforcement.
It is just a man or woman that has been trained, and has the official authority of the state behind them.
so, why not have the teachers with current concealed carry permits go through similar training, and give them the authority to carry on the premises?
there is no difference between teachers and police officers aside from the training.
I can see there is no logic to your thought process.
Nope – its you that have no logic. You might not “feel” that you can agree with but ancient has been pleasant and nice and is still waiting for you to show what is illogical?
Make sure you dont hire “mentally ill” teachers and there wont be a problem!
So……………what’s your idea ?
Sure let’s arm the teachers. Then when a teacher hits the final straw, pulls out the gun and start shooting. What then?
Lets think about this from a liberal perspective….Only allow the teacher one bullet in a gun that is locked in a safe, trigger locks in place, with a combination that must be obtained through a formal request(in triplicate)to the education commissioner….remember…its not people that do evil, its the guns!
Yeah, ok, and that is a more likely scenario than another psycho gets in a school and kills a bunch of people……….”what then?”
Israel has been doing it for years, with staff and teachers armed. The USA can do the same.
We think far too shallow about these events. We concern ourselves with metal detectors, security systems, ‘profiles,’ preventing ‘the mentally ill’ from obtaining firearms. This is shallow, facile thinking. Want to make a material impact? Think deeper. Cultivate a respect for how to teach compassion, nonviolence and personal responsibility in individual minds…..try GOD!
Because your god has stopped all the mass shootings that have taken place in Christian schools and your god has stopped all those shootings that have taken place in church too, correct?
I’ll pass on your so called god because it seems pretty useless when it comes to stopping mass shootings.
I hope you do not really pass on God!
As an atheist I don’t believe in any sort of god or god’s.
Yep because we know how compassionate and nonviolent your god is. Let’s see, kill and entire community, including the animals cause god got pissed at them? Destroy entire cities. Hmmm..you call that compassion and non-violent?
Okay now hat the initial shock of the real tragedy is wearing off, lets get every local yokel from FL to Canada to pop-off about how HE is going to make HIS schools safer — with no reality checks from the citizens and families involved, no state or local authority to do so. Lets hope reason soaks trough this unchecked enthusiasm before somebody else gets killed.
Read the following: http://www.wnd.com/2012/12/how-to-stop-the-slaughter-of-the-innocents/
Isn’t it interesting some people are trying to sell MORE guns? maybe they earn their living making them?
Here’s what’s in the link to wnd.. did you read it?
It’s a fact that many mass murders like the one we witnessed at the
Sandy Hook Elementary School were averted because innocent children and adults were not left defenseless. Here are just a handful of examples:
On Oct. 1, 1997, Luke Woodham, 16, part of a satanic cult, stabbed
and bludgeoned his mother before driving her car to Pearl High School in
Pearl, Miss., where he shot dead two students and wounded seven others
with a rifle he made no attempt to conceal. He then got back into his
mother’s car and planned to go to Pearl Junior High School to kill some
more. But assistant principal Joel Myrick retrieved a .45-caliber pistol
from the glove compartment of his truck and subdued Woodham.
On Jan. 16, 2002, Peter Odighizuwa, 43, of Nigeria, went to the
Appalachian School of Law campus in Virginia with a handgun and killed
three and wounded three others. At the sound of gunfire, two other
students – both police officers – retrieved guns from their cars.
Meanwhile, another police officer and former Marine jumped Odighizuwa
and disarmed him by the time the other officers got to the scene.
On Aug. 23, 1995, a band of crack cocaine addicts entered a store in
Muskegon, Mich., with a plan to kill everyone and steal enough cash and
jewelry to feed their habit. One member of the gang shot store owner
Clare Cooper in the back four times. He still managed to grab his
shotgun and fire on the gang as they fled. They were all apprehended.
On Dec. 9, 2007, a 24-year-old gunman named Matthew Murray launched
an attack on the congregants of the New Life Church in Colorado Springs
that left two victims dead. A former police officer, Jeanne Assam, a
member of the security team for the church, shot Murray 10 times,
killing him, as he was shooting at her. Murray had killed four others at
a church 70 miles away earlier in the day.
On July 24, 2012, Richard Gable Stevens rented a rifle at a shooting
range in Santa Clara, Calif., and herded three employees out the door,
saying he intended to kill them. One of the employees, however, was
carrying a .45-caliber handgun and shot the assailant.
On Dec. 17, 1991, two men armed with stolen pistols herded 20
customers and employees of a Shoney’s restaurant in Anniston, Ala., into
a walk-in refrigerator and locked it so they could rob the
establishment. However, one customer was armed with a .45-caliber
handgun hidden under a table. He shot one of the gunmen dead. The other
robber, who was holding the manager of the restaurant at gunpoint, began
firing at the customer. But he was wounded critically by return fire,
ending the incident.
On July 13, 2009, an armed man entered the Golden Food Market in
south Richmond, shooting and wounding a clerk while firing at store
patrons. He was shot by another customer who had a concealed-carry
permit, likely saving the lives of eight other people in the store.
On July 29, 2012, Charles Conner shot and killed two people and
their dogs at the Peach Tree RV park in Early, Texas. Vic Stacy got a
call from one of the neighbors, got his .357 magnum and shot Conner as
he fired upon the first police officer to arrive at the scene. Stacy was
credited with saving the life of the officer.
The truth is that every single day mass murders are averted by armed civilian
Yet, every time there is a horrendous slaughter like we saw at the
Sandy Hook Elementary School, there is a knee-jerk outcry for stricter
control of guns.
Wait a minute! The perpetrator of this crime stole his weapons from
his mother’s house after murdering her! He tried to buy a rifle days
before, but was turned down.
No law could have stopped that short of disarming all law-abiding
Americans. And that would just mean more death and carnage – and the end
of liberty for all.
The massacre at Sandy Hook could have been minimized, if not averted
completely, if just one teacher or administrator at the school was armed
– one teacher like you see in that picture from Israel.
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2012/12/how-to-stop-the-slaughter-of-the-innocents/#hi7fzHYwYXKQTHig.99
Teachers don’t need to be armed. A school shouldn’t be a fortress.
and yet they prepare by going into “lockdown”
sounds like a prison to me.
and what exactly is “lockdown” supposed to do?
confine the violence to 1 or 2 classrooms?
everyone inside would be dead or dying by the time police arrived.
no.
The solution is not to be reactive, waiting for a shooter, then waiting more for the police.
the solution is to be proactive,
allow teachers that have concealed carry permits and additional training to carry concealed.
require that the principal, vice principal, and select other staff either carry or have access to a firearm in case of emergency.
otherwise we leave our childrens safety and lives to luck and fate.
that’s not good enough.