armed teachers school tamaqua, PA lawsuit
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At least a dozen states now allow school districts to decide to arm teachers in order to protect the lives of their students. In all of these cases, the decision to carry a firearm — or not — is up to the individual teacher. No one is obliged to strap on a six-shooter before the first bell in the morning, as so many opponents seem to think.

Those who choose to carry, depending on each state’s specific requirements, must first pass background checks and undergo training before being allowed to carry in class.

After hearing of the manifest failures and bungling that led up to and worsened the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, the Parkland commission that investigated that debacle voted 13-1 to allow teachers in the Broward County Public Schools to arm themselves.

As we’ve tragically seen, time and again, when the worst happens, police are at least minutes away. Or casually forming a defensive perimeter while children and teachers are dying inside.

This is what Parkland commission member Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said:

“We have to give people a fighting chance, we have to give them an opportunity to protect themselves,” Gualtieri said. He said there aren’t enough officers or money to hire one for every school, but even then officers need backup. “One good guy with a gun on campus is not enough.”

But parents in the eastern Pennsylvania town of Tamaqua are so opposed to their school district’s decision to allow armed teachers that they’ve decided to sue.

Tamaqua school board members “endangered their community” when they approved a “manifestly illegal” policy to give weapons to teachers and other school employees, according to a lawsuit filed by three parents and a grandparent.

“A teacher’s role is to teach,” Holly Koscak, one of the plaintiffs, said Friday at a news conference. “We should not be putting those extra roles on a teacher when it’s out of their scope.” She said her daughter, a sophomore, is “very anxious” about having armed teachers in school.

Yes, well teaching is certainly a teacher’s primary role. But what if the nightmare scenario should, God forbid, ever come to Tamaqua Area High School (go Eagles)? How would Ms. Koscak suggest instructors protect her anxious daughter then?

The teachers union had already filed suit to overturn the policy. …

The National Education Association, the nation’s largest teachers union, says its members “overwhelmingly reject” proposals to have them carry guns in school. Using the hashtag “ArmMeWith,” some teachers have taken to Twitter to express their opposition.

Because as we all know, hashtags work so well against those bent on death and destruction.

Pennsylvania’s governor also opposes districts allowing their teachers to carry firearms.

Pennsylvania education officials said they are not aware of any other district with a policy of arming teachers. Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, is opposed to the idea.

“The Wolf administration has maintained that school districts may only authorize trained school police officers and school resource officers to carry firearms around students in our schools, should the school professionals feel they need it,” education department spokeswoman Nicole Reigelman said.

Tamaqua was the first Keystone State district to decide to arm teachers with guns. But they weren’t the first to tackle the problem of protecting their charges. That was most likely the Blue Mountain School District which, back in March, just after the Parkland shooting, placed five-gallon buckets of rocks in their schools’ classrooms.

There’s no word from Governor Wolf, the NEA, or Ms. Koscak on whether they’d find that option problematic in Tamaqua, too.

 

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99 COMMENTS

  1. “I do not want my children to be protected from an armed lunatic by a good person with a gun. I really hate my children and am praying for a retroactive abortion.”

  2. No teacher should be required to carry a gun or have one available, such as in a gun safe.

    Every teacher should know they have the option of volunteering to be trained and certified as competent to carry a gun in school, to use it with skill in the defense of their students and themselves.

    I no longer have any kids in school but would still be happy to help support the training and regular practice and certification. With my taxes I mean, or with the points built up on my Cabela’s credit card. I’ve enough points to contribute a new pistol, holster and a case of ammo.

    Betcha’ I’m one of many.

    • I do notice in the details above a couple things that give me pause.
      A) Statement that a gun will be provided
      B) A bonus will be provided

      If this is true I have pause because…..
      1) Most teachers today are idiots without common sense
      2) Idiots will do anything for a few extra bucks
      3) Idiots with guns isn’t a good thing

      If the school covers training costs and associated fees than OK but dangling money as an incentive doesn’t sound like a great idea.

      OTOH, I guess 1-3 could be said about LEOs nowdays so maybe it’s just business as usual.

  3. There has not to my knowledge ever been a case of an armed teacher, principal, or assistant principal refusing to engage a school shooter.

    Joel Myrick did stop a school shooting.

    However, there are multiple confirmed reports of certified LEOs refusing to engage the shooter until after he stopped shooting kids.

    Therefore the obvious answer is to prevent teachers and principals from stopping the carnage. After all, if the carnage is stopped, we can’t use the carnage as a reason to violate the civil rights of everybody who didn’t do it, can we?

    • Most police are “Auditors and Investigators Of Wrongdoing”, nothing more. Almost always the First-To-Flee a truly dangerous situation. You cannot depend on having a courageous one show up when you need it.

      The advantage of having some armed teachers is that they may already know most of the coconuts within the student body. Hired guards will probably be too busy ogling the youthful poontane to do their job properly..

    • Please…don’t send them here. We have enough of these types. I have an idea. How about Venezuela? They would fit right in.

      • and that is the reason WHY California is F-ed

        too many incoming ‘guests’ from down south well past Venezuela
        and I say again…thanks Reagan for f-ing up immigration and putting enough laws in-place after your BS amnesty!
        all the SEVERAL 80’s amnesty’s did was say…just wait a few years and they will make you legal!=encouragement to break our laws

  4. It seems that “officer safety” trumps “courage under fire” almost all of the time, but especially with “school resource officers” and police officers in general. It seems that for almost every police officer, making it to a cushy retirement is the ultimate goal, the protection of the public be damned. Add to that, observe the many unjustified shootings by police that get “covered up” by police-friendly prosecutors and grand juries.
    All one has to do is look at the (in)action of the police officers during the last number of mass school shootings, where these “trained professionals” SAT ON THEIR HANDS while the carnage was going on.
    You can bet that us military veterans in such a case would be drawn TOWARD the sound of gunfire. If I had my way, I would arm teachers who wish to be armed, and would hire military veterans as school support personnel such as janitors and maintenance personnel. Janitorial and maintenance personnel have the run of the school buildings and would make an effective “reactionary force”. Us veterans would be much more effective than police, (who are only concerned about their own “safety”), as us veterans are trained to go towards the sound of gunfire and “solve the problem”.
    Today’s human nature dictates that the person with all of the “training” (especially) law enforcement DOES cower in fear, while a 90 lb. armed teacher would reluctantly, but successfully take out the shooter. Being forced into a situation also forces one to act.
    There are many examples of persons, who one would normally think, would not be capable of acting in an extremely high-stress situation, but DO come out on top-stopping the threat, and saving lives.
    Sad to say, today’s police practices dictate that the cop’s life is MORE IMPORTANT than that of those he has sworn to protect despite the cops having statutory protections that do not apply to us ordinary civilians.
    All one has to do is look at Medal of Honor recipients, who are almost always mild-mannered, initially reluctant to act, but DO act, and perform feats who most would think are normally beyond their capacity and capabilities TRUE bravery in the heat of battle. The same applies to those civilians who act during school shootings.
    Human nature has a habit of propelling (actually forcing) the normal, average person into a true hero and life saver, while showing the true (cowardly behavior) nature of those we assign to protect us. A good example of our protectors cowering in fear is the deputies who FAILED TO ACT despite having all of the equipment necessary and the preferential laws on their side (that protect them from lawsuits and liability).
    TRUE heroes ACT, while our so-called protectors (failed to) REACT.

    • Brother,
      I am an armed veteran of the US military too. I served with heroes and I served with jackwads. Painting all LEO’s with a broad stroke is unfair to most LEO’s.
      Parkland was preventable 2 years before a trigger got pulled. The deputies there that Day disgraced their uniforms and the Sheriff belongs in prison for his arrogant, politically inspired incompetence. But I know too many cops that would go through hell on earth to reach someone, especially children, in need.
      Hiring QUALIFIED, COMPETENT veterans is a great plan. Arming teachers and school personnel willing to do so, also, a great plan. But most cops are not cut from the same cloth as the empty suits that served (failed) the people of Parkland.
      Cops, just like us, can train, train, train for that moment but no one knows for certain how they’ll react when SHTF. Most of us rise to the occasion. People who train towards weakness, excuses and mediocrity (Parkland) should be kept far away from our kids…our most precious resource.

      • Again with the “put up or shut up”.

        Learn it….

        Cops, all LEO, are hired hands. They are employees of the taxpayer. The taxpayer has a completely legitimate standing to critique how their employees are performing, without any need or moral requirement to “walk a mile in my shoes”.

        If an employee does not like the employer, the employee is free to find another customer for their service.

      • I was going to, but I came up 3 pushups short during the first physical test.

        One of the other guys in my group had just graduated from a college career in football, so he was awesome at pushups. Today, I work for a car dealer, and he’s serving 263 years for raping people while in uniform.

        But, yeah…cops are infallible.

  5. Deeply foolish…
    Ohio F.A.S.T.E.R. teacher and staff concealed carry program established 2013. Number of school attacks and non law enforcement negligent discharges: ZERO

    Utah public school concealed carry (teacher and staff option) established 1996. Last school attack – 1995. Number of non law enforcement negligent discharges: ONE.

    Israel’s first president Golda Mier “we will have peace when our enemies love their children more than they hate their enemies”

  6. I’m a teacher. My role is to teach. I’m bothered by the thought I might need to use a fire extinguisher, that’s not my job. My role is to teach. I shouldn’t have to report parents I have reason to believe are abusing their child, it puts me in a difficult position to be a mandated reporter. My role is to teach. Why should I have to report the suspicious man on campus. My role is to teach. Turning in my colleague for an inappropriate relationship with a student shouldn’t be my problem. My role is to teach. Why should I take extra time to explain things again or offer additional help to a struggling student? My role is to teach. It’s inconvenient to listen to your child, even though I’m the only one they will talk to or who pays them any attention. For about 20 years I’ve seen the best teachers play so many roles to students other than teacher. If a teacher took a bullet to save a child, they would be called a hero. If a teacher used a bullet to stop the threat to the whole school… well, I guess that’s not an option some places.

    • Teachers should never, ever be required to carry guns to school, unless they wish to continue being employed as teachers. Flipping burgers should require no such expertise, but if you *deliberately* refuse to protect my children while they are in your care, you may now FOAD.

      • Topic was that teachers should be required to carry as a condition of employment. Let’s see if *this one* shows up!

        • “Let’s see if *this one* shows up!”

          Nope, it never showed up, Larry.

          Sometimes it takes a few min. for a comment to show up…

          *snicker* 😉

    • You have a job that is multi faceted, one of those facets is providing a safe environment for the children in your care.
      If a classroom ceiling collapsed and trapped a child, is it your job to walk away? Clearly not your job to save a child…you teach.
      If the building caught fire, is it your job to get to safety and send someone back for the children? After all, you teach.
      A child suffers a seizure or has an accident resulting in a need for immediate action, walk out and find the nurse! After all, you teach.
      How is an armed intruder…invader any different? You are THE first line of defense and those children rely on YOU COMPLETELY to address their most immediate safety needs.
      Once the cavalry arrives go hide in your car, until then take a good look at their young faces and pray the next time you see them they are not laying in a casket.
      If my child were in your classroom I would run, not walk to remove them. I would then make it my life’s work to ensure you were removed from the classroom and never charged with teaching” a child again.

      Up side, sounds like you’ll make a terrific union rep or elected official.

    • You have a job that is multi faceted, one of those facets is providing a safe environment for the children in your care.
      If a classroom ceiling collapsed and trapped a child, is it your job to walk away? Clearly not your job to save a child…you teach.
      If the building caught fire, is it your job to get to safety and send someone back for the children? After all, you teach.
      A child suffers a seizure or has an accident resulting in a need for immediate action, walk out and find the nurse! After all, you teach.
      How is an armed intruder…invader any different? You are THE first line of defense and those children rely on YOU COMPLETELY to address their most immediate safety needs.
      Once the cavalry arrives go hide in your car, until then take a good look at their young faces and pray the next time you see them they are not laying in a casket.
      If my child were in your classroom I would run, not walk to remove them. I would then make it my life’s work to ensure you were removed from the classroom and never charged with “teaching” a child again.

      Up side, sounds like you’ll make a terrific union rep or elected official.

  7. We must put an end to teachers conducting fire drills. Their primary role is to teach, not to save kids from fires!

    Same dopey logic.

  8. Twenty years ago, I was told as a young cadet by Sergeant First Class that “die in place” is not a tactical task. He meant, don’t spend your soldiers lives for foolish actions waiting to die, keep fighting, and use every means necessary to win. I guess these parents are totally fine with their children “dying in place.” Denying their school teachers what is probably the most effective way to stop people trying to harm their children. It also denies reality that there are bad and broken people in the world. You can’t just have positive vibes, or happy thoughts to make real problems go away. Plus, we don’t really have a good “left of launch” solution for these criminals. Until we figure that out, we need something in schools that can stop them.

  9. I believe every parent has the right to ensure their children have the greatest opportunity to be slaughtered as possible. This is simply common sense parenting.
    I believe every child should also have a pet rattlesnake.

  10. All this pontificating from mostly (entirely?) non-teachers, non-academics.

    Here it is for everyone to understand, and kwit cheer bitchin’:
    As a teacher or school administrator, I depend on others (including my unions) to defend and protect me. My sole job and obligation is education. My job does not include immersing in the muck and mire of everyday life, but to remain cloistered in an environment that ignores everything but readin’, writin’ and ‘rithmeticin’. I get paid to be non-violent, and set an example of non-violence in face of adversity; to groom minds to be better than brutes.

    Police and military are designed for, and designed to, visit violence. My only interest is that the violence remain outside the classroom, and in the scruffy, dirty, base, polluted and corrupted outside world.

    Collect all the guns and there will be no school shootings (ahem, when was the last time a gang, or inner-city ruffian, or terrorist attacked a school?)

    • to remain cloistered in an environment that panders to everything politically correct, but ignores readin’, writin’ and ‘rithmeticin’.

    • “Collect all the guns and there will be no school shootings”

      And we can look at the other countries(with the exceptions of Canada and Chile) in the Western Hemisphere to see how “collect all the guns” works out. It has resulted higher murder rates and populations helpless to criminals(who most assuredly do not obey their countries’ gun control laws) and corrupt governments.

      Frankly, you so called “educator”, you should pluck the beam from your eye before you concern yourself with the speck of dust in pro-liberty minded people. America spends more money per student($15,171 in 2013 counting college and vocational training) for worse results than most developed countries.
      Then there is the rampant bullying you permit in your “environment”, the methods you use to teach your charges that learning is boring when learning should be interesting, the IEP students who allowed to run wild and ruin learning for every serious student, and of course the political indoctrination.

      This video should have uncovered just bad things are in that last regard:
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bioW5SJMFDs
      From the video:

      “The dead white guys did not create this country”

      “Damn the Second Amendment”

      “They don’t agree with Islam, so they don’t want their kids to know about it. They don’t agree with birth control so they don’t want their kids to talk about it. They don’t agree with math because they don’t understand it. It’s not the same math they did in high school. So they don’t want their kids to know about it.”

    • “ahem, when was the last time a gang, or inner-city ruffian, or terrorist attacked a school?

      Gangs: Gang-affiliated violence is so much a constant in the big “Union-controlled” inner city schools in Detroit, Chicago, NYC, et cetera that it doesn’t even bear notice anymore.

      Inner-city ruffian: Same likewise. Plus the girls of Rotherham, in England… where were you when they needed protection? Where were their teachers?

      Terrorist: Beslan.
      Too bad you weren’t there. No, really, I wish you had been.

      “collect the guns”:
      So how’s that working out in Detroit, NYC, LA, San Fran, Washington DC?

      • “collect the guns”:
        “So how’s that working out in Detroit, NYC, LA, San Fran, Washington DC?”

        The examples you give are not related to school shootings.

        A. All the guns haven’t been collected from the demographic most likely to shoot up a school.

        B. How many gangs, terrorists, and ruffians of the inner city have attacked schools?

  11. Progressives are so predictably short-sighted. It’ll be fun watching these progressive parents turn on each other when the next mass shooting happens and it’s apparent an armed teacher may have prevented it.

    Ol’ Darwin is having a having a heck of a streak of late.

  12. I note a few things here.

    It seems to me, based on experience, that natural anxiety in teens is mostly social. Where they get anxiety about other things, such as guns, is from adults. So I would suspect, but cannot prove, that the anxious sophomore here probably gets her gun-based anxiety from her parents. If I were still a teen my anxiety would come mostly from the fact that I would percieved most adults to be completely incompetent about even discussing security never mind actually doing something useful.

    On top of that school shootings present an ever-growing problem in terms of response. Klebold and Harris attempted to use what we today would call IEDs to do most of the damage. That failed. However, it’s probably only a matter of time until the attempt is repeated and done so successfully. That’s problematic because it will lengthen response time from medical personnel when cops have to spend more time sweeping for explosives and declare the area all clear before allowing medical personnel into the area. More people will bleed out in that time.

    This whole thing is a mess and will be for some time. Too many people with no fucking clue what they’re on about take up way, way too much of the time and energy of everyone else. Anti-gunners always want “studies” and “fact finding” about “gun violence” right up until one of the groups doing such research reaches a conclusion the antis don’t like. The committee on the MDS shooting wasn’t supposed to find facts. They were supposed to come to a PC conclusion that supported gun control. Since they didn’t come to the “obvious conclusions” the very type of investigatory body the antis always say we need is now to be ignored in favor of feels and lawsuits.

    And the antis wonder why “gun nuts” don’t listen to a fucking thing the antis say.

  13. I don’t know the details but I’m not surprised. PA has NIMBYs who start crap out of boredom and negligent slobs who think the government should do everything including wipe their butts for them.

  14. I come from a family of teachers and educators. Of course me being the black sheep of the family. Likes guns and believes everyone should have one and learn to use it.
    Sounds to me like libitard craziness not to arm teachers who are willing to take the training. Not that any training other then how to fire a gun is really needed.
    I used to do the qualifying for almost all the local town police at the range I worked at in NY.
    Most we had to make the course of fire so easy. In order for them to pass. So I have no idea what type of training is required by any school systems involved.
    But to me “Common Sense” says to give kids a fighting chance. Arming teachers who want to and pass whatever it is that’s required at least. Gives them some chance which is better then none at all.
    Which is what these crazy libitard parents seem to want.

  15. It’s a mistake to use their headline and wording, which is, frankly, inaccurate. Arming teachers? Concerned? Safety?

    Nobody is arming teachers; it’s because we are concerned about kids getting killed; & the point is to make some more safety. While we’re at it, if “red flag” laws are such a good idea, how about we “red flag” threatening, violent n disturbed people likely to shoot up schools & already in schools, n consider broader somethings to do than “No guns for you!” for whole categories of people who are mostly never in schools.

    Once that headline is set, it’s not the “truth about guns” at least three ways, and it’s bad journalism.

    Now, I don’t want to get off on a rant here, but…

    Blindly using their programmed wording pushes their spin. “Wee-wee’d up Bystanders Sue School District about Policy They Imagined” might be a bit rough, but it’s more accurate. (B T W, was there a press release? Who wrote it?)

    A policy to put buckets of rocks in classrooms passes without comment, while rolling back prohibitions on what people would do themselves – carry their own arms they already have – is the end of the world. A gun they don’t see makes some kid nervous, while a bucket of rocks by the door constantly reminding of the sgltranger danger does not. What?

    The bucket of rocks is there to make them nervous about guns. It certainly isn’t creating safety. Which is the other message – Yeah, you’re useless. Best you can do is throw rocks at someone with a gun.

    The anti-people have done a good job of setting the terms around school safety policies, with the lovely phrase “armed teachers” conjuring up molle-covered SWAT troops carrying *actual* assault weapons. “Arming teachers” sounds like a mandate, too. “You’re in room 3. Before you get started, get measured for your plate carrier, n check in with the armorer for your issue gun n more mags.”

    Nobody has proposed or mandated teaching with a slung battle rifle rattling away as you demonstrate long division.

    It’s brilliant. Over-armed in-country occupation troops cow the population, reinforce the emergency n danger (else why the “need” for all that force; all those convoys with lights), and paint any other kind of response as just as extreme.

    People think first in images. What images have been implanted, n now summoned by saying “armed teachers?” You don’t see nebbish guy in a sport coat with a gun you never know is there. You see a cross between an assault Marine and T V prepper “teaching” your kids.

    Nobody’s proposing that, but they’ve hijacked the conversation completely.

    Whoever is crafting this messaging n delivery is consistently better than Don Draper at his best. The babbling fronts for Mothers Against Only Some Violence aren’t thinking this up.

    There’s some accurate wording in the article, but the frame is set already in the headline. “Truth about guns” gets left behind three ways, and there’s no recovery.

    It’s also bad journalism. You don’t have to go along with bad journalism.

  16. So much discussion for a relatively rare incident. Focus should be how to handle with existing resources.
    Realistic simulations found that throwing things at the attacker is very effective at disrupting his attack and allowing someone to escape it tackle the attacker.
    Teachers should focus on teaching and I can’t see too many who are great with weapons. If anyone is required to be armed, it should be school security with rifles.

    • VERY anxious. Surely, that gives her Mom the right to tell everyone else how to live so that her little darling can feel comfier.

  17. All schools should allow teachers, faculty and staff who have CCW permits to carry on campus. Those folks should continue to qualify with their weapons and maintain a current permit. No teacher, faculty or staff should be required to have a weapon, it should be voluntary, and if they do chose to carry the school/city should provide them a reasonable bonus for the service they provide. A CCW permit holder should be allowed to carry their concealed weapon ANYWHERE in the entire USA without exception, except private residences at the insistence of the homeowner.

      • “I can’t find “CCW” anywhere in my copy of the Constitution.”

        The constitution is constantly being amended by court decision and legislation. Catch up with the law.

  18. I agree with the parents. Their children should not be protected, which might result in removing them from the gene pool. That’s a good thing.

    Three generations of imbeciles is enough. Buck v. Bell, 274 U.S. 200 (1927).

  19. Wonder who is funding these lawsuits?

    Can you say ‘Soros”?

    “Follow the money… You idiots! I told you to follow the money…”
    Deep Throat to Woodward and Bernstein

  20. Oh my goodness,
    What’s all the fuss about? Just put up those “Gun Free Zone” signs all around school property. Problem solved. Almost forgot…..have the local government pass restrictive gun sale ordinances similar to those in recently enacted in Pittsburgh. There…..now the problem is really solved. Everybody can sleep well in Tamaqua tonight.
    Well, everyone except the parents and grandparents of school age children, that is.

    • Maybe passing laws that establish school GFZs in all directions for ten miles? If we keep killers at ten miles or more, we wouldn’t even have to worry about a stray bullet from either a nut case, or incompetent hunter. How good would that be?

      Oh….has anybody seen a situation where any jurisdiction made school mass shootings illegal? Someone should look into that; laws against simple murder don’t work.

  21. As far as I can tell, no one is “giving weapons to teachers”. Just giving them the option to qualify and carry if they so choose. Holly Kocksack sounds like one those these insufferable women that can’t help but try to control everything and everyone around them. Every town has at least one.

    • Majority of women, at least mothers, want to control everything that is dangerous. Mommy always has to make sure her children are safe from anything potentially bad or dangerous. If she can, she will keep you in the house as long as possible; where it’s safe and she can baby you the rest of her life. This is why many cultures throughout time didn’t allow women to make the most important decisions for the entire group.

      My ancestors didn’t stop women from voting. They restricted women to voting for a man to represent their family. The man would debate with other men about what should be done. They would consult elders — which could include women — for the most important or problematic decisions. They would vote, then the higher ups would take that into account when making the final decision. In the end, the men had to do the hard work and potentially give their life for the kids and women.

      When I was younger I really gave people the benefit of the doubt when it came to their intelligence. I considered women to be no different than men. It could be possible that the level of intellect of men and women is very similar. However, as I got older I realized women can’t escape the biological instincts they evolved to have regardless of their intelligence. Maybe that’s why they don’t lead in many areas… That’s okay because we need balance; we just can’t forget how to walk that rope.

  22. Give me everything but a gun when a kid has a gun and is trying to murder me. That will show him. Maybe we can hand out Poké Balls for the kids to throw at the monster shooting at them.

    Killers go to “gun free zones” with a gun because they want to play God. They want you to get on your knees, weep and beg them to have mercy on you. Then they laugh at how pathetic you are while they shoot you in the head. They repeat the process until someone stops them or they run out of opportunities.

    Many Democrats and women are extremely opposed to actually fixing problems the most logical and pragmatic way. They run off ideology and/or emotions. They rather sacrifice their own children than have liberty, strength, independence and less bad humans in the world.

    We have to stop allowing weak minded people dictate how society is to “work.” We have to start calling them out for a debates in-front of everyone and lay out the reality of the world to them no matter how much they cry. Any time and everywhere possible. No need to be rude or mean. This is something the NRA really can’t do… It’s something everyone has to do. Don’t bring your NRA hat with you. At least some of the smart kids will see there is another way of thinking and going about fixing the actual issues without having ulterior motive.

    • “Maybe we can hand out Poké Balls for the kids to throw at the monster shooting at them.”

      Hacky Sacks should be the weapon of choice.

        • You know, maybe buckets of D-cell batteries would be the best choice. Unlike rocks, and hockey pucks, and even hacky sacks, batteries are uniformly heavy, easier to grip, and can accurately be thrown regardless of hand size. Batteries can be “lobbed” to get over obstacles, and generally require only one ranging shot, then unload on the target (you can ask my little brother about that one).

  23. ‘Parents’ not in my opinion !! What so called parent, would not want their child to have a chance in a horrible situation ? Also I would venture to guess that a would be school shooter may think twice before entering a school with armed teachers. Teachers that may very well end said shooter’s life. Any so called teacher , unwilling to save a child’s life , is a coward & not someone I would trust to be anywhere near my children. As for the parents that are bringing this lawsuit. They are shit parents !!

    • Maybe some of the parents that object are like me. What a colossal waste of money and time to instruct teachers to defend our children in schools. Do any of you realize what the odds are that your child is going to go to school one day and get killed by some lunatic? It’s so insignificant that it isn’t even worth discussing in this forum. You do the math, factor in the number of children that get killed in a years time compared to the number that go to and come home from school every day and return home safe. I’d be willing to bet my house that the number killed each year in school isn’t even 10% of those same children that get killed going to and from school in a bus accident or those kids that are poisoned and die by the school lunch program. We need to get off this subject. I think we’ve beaten this dead horse long enough. SHIT happens folks, bad things happen to good people. It’s all just an attempt by the left to program people into hating and fearing guns, with the end result being disarmament of the law-abiding citizens in this country. GUN CONTROL HAS LITTLE OR NOTHING TO DO WITH GUN’S, BUT EVERYTHING TO DO WITH CONTROL. Unfortunately not everyone has a guarantee to a long full life on this rock, think with your brain not your emotion. Your kid is just as likely to be killed by a meteorite plummeting to Earth hitting him/her in the head and killing them as going to school and being killed by a lunatic. What’s next, every man woman and child being forced to wear a Kevlar helmet 24 hours a day?

      • And my point to the above rant isn’t to let people die, but that it is inevitable. There is no way to make anything as public as a Public School system 100% safe.

    • Amazing a lot of teachers and parents are ok with not giving students a chance to defend themselves by any means. But rocks! Really!

  24. These people who have kids that are traumatized by the sight of firearms should put their wimpy kids in a safe zone or special ed class cause their either being coached or there is something wrong with them,,

  25. #ArmMeWith Teachers who earn their money!
    Am I the only one that knows teachers get more pay and better retirement than most police officers?
    #ArmMeWith Teachers who actually have something to teach!
    Who would personally want their child to spend time and learn from people who seem to be cowards? I don’t see these organizations pushing for harder laws on educators who illegally have sex with the same children they don’t want to protect.
    Maybe it would be easier to fire the teachers, get rid of their pensions that are draining the states and get monitors and armed security just to push the play button and keep it secure?

  26. There have always been armed teachers in some Pennsylvania schools, regardless of what politicians say or do not say they can do.

  27. Every parent opposed to this plan should be required to sign a release stating that they do not want their child protected by an armed teacher or other school official in the event of an attack on the school. All of those students should then be instructed to meet in a common area of the school to hide from an attack unprotected with no legal recourse against the school board or any individual school official who did nothing to protect their children. They should also understand that the police also have no legal responsibility to actually do anything….like Parkland. Who do they think they should rely on.

    • Rather, there should be separate classrooms for those kids whom don’t want to be protected by a gun. Then we will see which building the gunman goes to: the one with every teacher carrying inside or the building with no guns whatsoever and a selfish cop standing outside.

  28. If you just put up signs in schools saying “Teachers are armed.” that would drastically reduce the odds of a school shooting. We are dealing with cowards after all.

  29. I don’t want any teacher with a gun charged with the protection of my children. Give the guns to the janitors, maintenance men and shop teachers. I would trust all of them before a damned liberal thinking teacher who will probably hesitate before making a kill shot and get kids killed. That one million to one chance that anyone ever tries to come into the school and kill someone! Jeez, this subject sure as hell is starting to bore me…

  30. No, I am so bent on hating Trump, The second amendment, America, and Republicans that I would rather have my kids butchered and not have a fighting chance then to let a trained responsible legal armed teacher protect my kids, (signed snowflake liberal Dumbocrats) you’re all pathetic!

  31. I feel very comfortable saying any parent who is against having teachers who volunteer and are trained to carry a gun in school, then that parent does support having their own children murdered in school.

    You can’t turn the clock backwards to a time before these school shootings. The parents are in denial about true school defense. These are very dangerous parents.

    • One innovative way to promote armed teachers would be to have an all female shooting team tour the country demonstrating that women can handle guns safely and shoot accurately.
      I think most adult women don’t think about women shooting. They don’t know, what they don’t know.

      Sean Hannity used a woman to demonstrates rifle calibers. He made Jess Duff famous to the rest to the world. She was invited to speak on several programs after the appearance on Fox News. As a military teacher this was a great demonstration for uneducated civilians.

      “Jessie Duff demonstrates semi-automatic guns for Sean Hannity”

  32. Cautionary statement. Teachers are humans too and some have or develop severe psychological problems. Not clear that this will be a net win for student safety. Time will tell.

    • “Cautionary statement. Teachers are humans too and some have or develop severe psychological problems.”

      You mean like cops and school resource officers? Yeah, we should take the guns away from them too so the kids will all be safe.

  33. To deny anyone the choice to arm themselves for their personal safety or the safety of others is flat-out unconstitutional. The right to keep in bear arms is for that exact purpose (amongst others). Teachers, who volunteer or choose to be armed, and are properly trained and legally armed, should never be denied the right to do so. Gun free zones are clearly only for the law-abiding as criminals could care less about the law. That is why they are criminals. I was a SWAT officer for 16 years and SWAT team leader for 10 years. I would instruct the teachers not to pursue anyone in an active shooter situation but rather lock down in place and take up a defensive position until authorities arrive. A very sound plan could be put in place to protect the students with minimal risk to anyone but with the potential for very high benefits.

  34. theyre not arming teachers
    theyre discontinuing the practice of disarming them
    there is a difference
    theyre no longer violating their human rights

  35. When you use phrases like “arming teachers”, you have adopted the opposition’s framing. It sounds like issuing guns and adding responsibilities to people who want neither.

    Instead, use more accurate phrases like “allowing teachers to arm themselves if they want” or “cease prohibiting armed teachers” or “offering even more training to teachers who already want it.”

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