Saturday, August 16, 2008

Teachers and Guns?

I found this article below today on yahoo. I was pretty shocked.

HOUSTON (Reuters) - A Texas school district will let teachers bring guns to class this fall, the district's superintendent said on Friday, in what experts said appeared to be a first in the United States. The board of the small rural Harrold Independent School District unanimously approved the plan and parents have not objected, said the district's superintendent, David Thweatt.School experts backed Thweatt's claim that Harrold, a system of about 110 students 150 miles northwest of Fort Worth, may be the first to let teachers bring guns to the classroom.Thweatt said it is a matter of safety."We have a lock-down situation, we have cameras, but the question we had to answer is, 'What if somebody gets in? What are we going to do?" he said. "It's just common sense."Teachers who wish to bring guns will have to be certified to carry a concealed handgun in Texas and get crisis training and permission from school officials, he said.Recent school shootings in the United States have prompted some calls for school officials to allow students and teachers to carry legally concealed weapons into classrooms.The U.S. Congress once barred guns at schools nationwide, but the U.S. Supreme Court struck the law down, although state and local communities could adopt their own laws. Texas bars guns at schools without the school's permission.(Reporting by Jim Forsyth in San Antonio; writing by Bruce Nichols in Houston, editing by Vicki Allen)

Personally, I would never do this. There are way too many things that could go wrong here. What if a student gets ahold of your gun and hurts or kills someone? Even if they were just curious about it and took it to look at, something could easily go wrong. Not to mention if a student was mad at someone and took it. I don't want that responsibility. I have a hard enough time keeping up with my keys - no way I want to hold onto a gun all day. There is no way I trust some of the other teachers with guns either! That is a very scary thought! I'm also very sad that this is even an issue in our schools. I realize things happen in schools, but I like to think my kiddos and I are safe when we're at school.

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