About Those Police Officers on LAUSD Campuses Today

"Hey mom, there's a cop with a gun at my school now." Nine-year-old Mr. T casually dropped that little nugget of information into my lap tonight during halftime of the Notre Dame-Alabama national championship football game.

Today was his first day back after a long, three-week winter vacation and I wasn't exactly surprised by the increased police presence at the elementary schools--high schools already have officers around all the time-since in the wake of the Sandy Hook massacre. That said, it all feels a little like the reaction after 9/11 when every car driving into LAX would be stopped by law enforcement and we had that handy color-coded terror alert system--which never seemed to land on "green" for "low risk of terrorist attacks." 

I wondered if having police offers with guns on campus made T feel like what happened in Newtown couldn't happen at his school.

"Did it make you feel safer?" I asked.

"Ehhh... No," he replied. And his reason why made me profoundly sad. "The cop might shoot us," T said. 

While Alex Jones is ranting to Piers Morgan about his right to bear arms, our children wonder if someone who has pledged an oath to serve and protect will decide to open fire on campus. Is this what we really want?

Comments

I love his honesty. And yes, I think we should all be a little frightened at the ever escalation of
"weapons will prevent shooting" mentality promoted by the weapons manufacturers. They didn't get to be the top .1% of the 1% for nothing.
Rosita said…
That was my first fear when they suggested putting armed officers in the school. And if such a shooting did happen, what would they suggest next...arming the students? It just seems to never end once we assume that violence ends violence.
Joy said…
While I do think that having a police presence on campus in most instances is not warranted (in middle school), I was certainly happy to see them this afternoon at the corner of Avalon and Imperial when at least 70 students started out the new year in a full out BRAWL that quickly made its way toward my campus. I am saddened and frustrated at the lack of counseling that cannot possibly be in place to combat this nearly every other day occurrence. I have a headache and need a glass of wine...:/

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