But are custodians "the right people," the kinds of "good guy with a gun" pushed by the NRA in its plan to put armed guards in every school in America? In nearby Lima, Ohio - about two hours away - an editorial letter pushing the idea of arming custodians ran in The Lima News on Tuesday. Loyd Harnishfeger pointed out the idea:
Why the custodian? The choice is obvious. First, they do not have a classroom full of children as their first responsibility as teachers do. Secondly, they are free to roam the halls and have the keys necessary should the need arise to enter a locked down room or area. Thirdly, unlike the administrators, they are not needed for quick decisions regarding evacuation, coordination with first responders, etc.In a story in The Washington Post today suggesting that the Obama administration may support putting more police in schools, Sen. Barbara Boxer says schools should hire "officers" if they want to. But armed guards, of course, don't always magically make school violence go away: Columbine had an armed guard, and the shootings at Fort Hood occurred on an American military base. Just yesterday, at a school in Taft, California, the on-duty armed guard was "snowed-in" on the day of a shooting on campus, as a classroom supervisor and a teacher talked the gunman down.
Multiple reports suggest that training "average citizens" to defend shootings can prove disastrous.
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