As America mourns the huge loss of young lives and those of the educators who taught them at Sandy Hook Elementary School, due to the heinous acts of a deranged individual, I am certain that every parent and grandparent has asked themselves if this could have been avoided and how can it be avoided in the future. I am one of those grandparents.
As a grandfather of four small children who are either in elementary school or soon will be, I was perplexed by this as well and decided to think up a solution.
My proposal is this: Place a small, slightly modified wall safe in the Principal’s office at EVERY school. This safe would be modified with a glass door manufactured with built-in sensors that would activate in the event that the glass door was broken. Furnish the hammer on a chain in which to break the glass in the event of an EMERGENCY. Similar to the old-time fire alarms. The key for this safe would remain with the safe installer.
Now for the door sensor. This sensor would be connected directly to an alarm company and 911, as well as the school alarm system. The purpose of this would be to notify the police immediately and to alert the educators to move their students to their safe zones and implement lock-down procedures. This would all occur simultaneously when the glass was broken, allowing everyone precious moments to prepare.
The next part of this would be for ALL administrators working in the school to be REQUIRED to take a firearms USE and SAFETY course as the item that would be placed in the safe would be a loaded semi-automatic hand gun with an extra clip. The school ADMINISTRATOR would be the first line of defense for our children and would also be on an equal footing with a potential intruder. Because of the love of educating our children that the teachers unions have, I am pretty much certain that they would provide the safety course for the administrators at no cost to the administrator. The cost of the safe installation and modification could be absorbed by the state and federal education departments, with possible contributions coming from the school districts themselves.
I believe that the cost of this program would be minimal compared to the life of just one precious child. This is a non-political plan that could be easily implemented with benefits for all. After all, our kids are worth it, don’t you think? I encourage each and every parent and grandparent to forward this to every lawmaker and government leader that you can, as well as every media outlet possible if you agree with this plan. Keep your kids safe, and always be aware of your surroundings.
Photo credit: JPott (Creative Commons)