Don’t miss breaking news! Vermont Daily Water Cooler is a roundup of important headlines from around the state.
| Publication | Headline | Published |
|---|---|---|
| NBC 5 | Hundreds of Vermont students demand action following Texas school shooting | 5/25/2022 5:33 PM |
| WCAX | Shelburne Museum adds new exhibits | 5/25/2022 6:06 PM |
| NBC 5 | Brattleboro town manager resigning after 5 months on the job | 5/25/2022 6:41 PM |
| VT Digger | Apartment building fire displaces 14 people in Hartford | 5/25/2022 7:50 PM |
| VT Digger | Amid housing crisis, Burlington weighs whether to give UVM space to build more dorms | 5/25/2022 9:45 PM |
| VT Digger | Parents allege bullying, harassment, lack of accountability at Williston trampoline park | 5/26/2022 6:17 AM |
| VT Digger | Falko Schilling: Vermont Legislature drops the ball on police reform | 5/26/2022 7:07 AM |
| WCAX | Police to be on CVU’s campus following potential threat | 5/26/2022 7:23 AM |
Categories: VTWatercooler Daily Headlines
Re: Hundreds of Vermont students demand action following Texas school shooting
I stand with the students. The question is, what ‘action’ are they demanding?
After doing more research, I’ve reconsidered my recommendation for armed guards and locked downed schools. I’m not recommending against armed guards or heightened visual security. But research over the last 20 years or so demonstrates that allowing school staff, be they teachers, maintenance workers, or service staff, to conceal-carry firearms on their person while at school is, by far and away, the most effective deterrent to a would-be assailant.
Preamble: “Within hours of mass public shootings, even before we know how the shooter obtained his gun, there are immediate calls for laws such as universal background checks. Ironically, there is not one mass public shooting this century that would have been stopped by universal background checks, even with a perfectly enforced law.”
While the safety of our children is worth any price:
● “[p]utting a guard in every school is also very costly. Florida is spending over $400 million a year to put one police officer in each public school.”
● “Allowing teachers and staff to carry concealed handguns is nothing new in the United States, and hasn’t created any problems. Before the early 1990s, there were no state laws specifically restricting concealed carry on K-12 property so that teacher carry may have been common for much of our history.”
● “School insurance rates are no higher for schools that allow teachers to carry.”
● “A couple of facts immediately become apparent. There hasn’t been a single mass public shooting in any school that allows teachers and staff to carry guns legally. Since at least as far back as January 2000, not a single shooting-related death or injury has occurred during or anywhere near class hours on the property of a school that allows teachers to carry.”
● “Having a single entrance with a metal detector creates its own safety hazards by leading to
crowded bottlenecks of people that present easy targets to attackers. Metal detectors won’t
stop someone from shooting their way into a school.”
● “… if attackers don’t know who is carrying a concealed firearm, they won’t know whom they need to attack first. Perhaps because police understand the difficulty of their jobs, they are strongly in favor of abolishing gun-free school zones.”
This information is based on research conducted over the last 20 years. If anyone has any data supporting an alternative to these findings, speak now. Otherwise, we know what must be done.
https://crimeresearch.org/2019/05/major-new-research-on-school-safety-schools-that-allow-teachers-to-carry-guns-havent-seen-school-shootings-during-school-hours/
Thank you, Jay, for doing your homework. It provides a middleground. Not that I think the BIPOC should be catered to on this or the BLM flag issues, but economically it makes sense to consider your suggestion. A teacher or two in each building that have been trained for handling gun emergencies, would ease community concerns to protect the children without draining our much needed police force. If people knew there were such people on the staff, it could act as a deterent – maybe a parked retired police car out front could be added, too.
I also think we don’t need civilians having relatively easy access to assault weapons.
Guns of any kind are not easy to get, smart guy. You apparently have never tried to get one. Only Criminals do not follow the rules( REMEMBER THE SCHOOL WAS A NO GUN ZONE). They steal them or buy them illegally from some criminal. It is Very rare that some non criminal gets a gun and goes postal on anyone. After hearing more info on the Texas shooter, he had help and was mentally ill. From the local police who did nothing for 15 minutes before and almost 45min after he went into the school, that was supposed to have been locked down. Hell, a mother of two got into the building WHILE this was going on, after the cops let her go she ran she in/out the back (again no locked door )and left. Get your story you are propagandizing straight. And why no mention of the black guy who shot up the grocery store in Buffalo. Guess it does not fit your narrative. This is the result of progressive “DEFUND THE POLICE” GARBAGE. See what happens when you let them have their “gun free zones” ? Works well doesn’t it?
There were “resource officers” in several Vermont schools in response to the Sand Hook incident. After the ruckus in Minneapolis, “students demanding action” called for them to be removed, as the presence of uniformed authority “could trigger anxiety in students, particularly those of Color”… The democrats, the media and many school officials have conspired to convince youngsters that the police are a bigger threat to their safety than mentally disturbed individuals hell-bent on mass violence.
The students demand action, the students demand that uniform officers be removed from schools and the students demand more action and on and on with the demands.
All of these constant and shifting student demands make one think of the old adage of ” Children should be seen and not heard.”
$400 million to have armed guards at Florida schools? Think how much of we could put toward woke social/emotional learning programs to further confuse and mentally debilitate children instead. Its no wonder our culture is so f’d up. We’re teaching boys masculinity is toxic and being a heterosexual is homophobic/antitrans, some how discriminatory and not trendy. Not to mention your race and country inherently suck. What could go wrong?
First of all, students can demand NOTHING! They’re students, being taught or should I say indoctrinated by those teaching. What is needed are mental institutions, which were torn down by liberal representatives. At least the mentally ill could be given their medicine, have medical staff, food, a bed etc…Now they roam the streets, do drugs, live in tents, no wonder they’re pissed off! You reap what you sow!
Totally agree with Jay as well. If I could add anything is the terrible service some of the Media is doing by spreading their narrative of blaming organizations have done nothing wrong, and helping some politicians politicize the terrible situation. Unfortunately many of our students are repeating these politicized views thinking it will fix things. It is time for real journalist to stand tall against the others in their field and expose the lie, and deceit.