(The opinions expressed in guest op-eds are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of RedState.com.)
Tuesday’s shooting in Texas was horrific. Little children had their lives snuffed out by an evil madman. These tragedies cannot continue to happen over and over again. My hope is that we look to each other to have this conversation instead of
those who are looking to score political points over the bodies of dead children. So what can be done?
Every time these incidents occur, the immediate reaction from some is to talk about gun control. I don’t know if gun control would’ve prevented this terrible tragedy from happening. I do know that even if you ban every gun in America tomorrow, people who want to use weapons to harm people will find a way to do so. It is against the law to commit murder. By definition, criminals don’t follow the law. So what else can be done?
Before his retirement in the 2000s, my father, a long-time school security officer, was one of the founders of the Cleveland Metropolitan School District Police Department. In 2007, Asa Coon shot two students and two teachers at Cleveland’s SuccessTech Academy before committing suicide. The school district and political leaders at the time responded by installing metal detectors in all schools and hiring more CMSD security and police officers. There has not been another major shooting incident like this in a CMSD school since.
This is what I believe should happen across the nation. There should not be a school in this country without trained police and security officers in them. Not just one, but multiple officers. Have law enforcement officials determine how many
officers would realistically be needed to protect a particular school based on the size of the school, number of students, etc., and go from there.
School districts in our major cities should all have police departments like in Cleveland. For school districts in suburbs, rural areas and small cities, the state should handle those responsibilities. Every school should have metal detectors and surveillance video. And it should be mandatory. No armed guards? No funding from the federal government. No metal detectors? No funding. No surveillance video? No funding.
We also have to be mature enough as a nation to understand the fact that not every municipality has the resources to provide the necessary security measures, and as a result, we may have to increase budgets in order to do so. I
know that may be an anathema to some who are reading this, but “lack of funding” can no longer be a reason why our children are left unprotected in many schools across this nation.
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There are some who say that schools have not spent hundreds of billions of dollars in COVID relief that they received. I am not opposed to schools spending those dollars on security. It may require changes to the law because there were restrictions attached to what you can use COVID funds for. But regardless, we must find a way to make sure that every school is protected. Money can not stand in the way.
There are also those who say that teachers should be armed. I’m not necessarily opposed to that either. However, I believe that the best course of action is for schools to have dedicated officers and guards in every building. Let the teachers
worry about teaching, and if they have to be the defense of last resort, so be it.
There are also those who believe that adding officers and metal detectors would turn “schools into prisons”. Most aspects of American life today are more secure than the average elementary school. It takes more to walk into most concerts
than it does to enter into most schools. Is that ok with you? If we can have measures in place to protect attendees to sporting events, surely we can do the same for our children.
I hope that this time we can actually focus on getting something done, instead of immediately retreating to our partisan corners and fighting with each other. If our leaders are truly interested in making our children safe, they will make sure that
no school in the United States is a soft target. It won’t prevent all of these tragedies, but it will go a long way to preventing most of them.
Finally, we have to admit something that we rarely discuss in public life anymore. We will never truly and fully fix this problem until we turn our hearts back to God. I know that is offensive to some, but the truth is freedom without God is not
freedom, but anarchy. Laws, while important, cannot fix the heart. As the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr said, “Man cannot save himself, for man is not the measure of all things and humanity is not God. Bound by the chains of his own
sin and finiteness, man needs a Savior.”
My thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families.
Darvio Morrow is the CEO of the FCB Radio Network and co-host of The Outlaws Radio Show
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