2aguy
Diamond Member
- Jul 19, 2014
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This is an article that actually talks to experts who actually train school resource officers and staff.....
Who Says We Should Arm School Staff to Protect Our Children?
I spoke to the brain trust at Tactical Defense Institute (TDI). These men and women built the training curriculum recommended for school resource officers (SROs) across the country. These analysts and instructors also provided regional training for SWAT officers. They took their classes across the US to train local law enforcement instructors. They train the trainers.
The instructors at TDI examine police reports to uncover what works and what doesn’t work. It is their job to study new threats on the street and then recommend changes in the way law enforcement officers are trained. They looked at the attacks on our schools and said that school resource officers alone were not enough to protect our students.
For one thing, there were too many times when SROs were not on campus. In addition, the SROs were an obvious target during an attack. The SROs were also spread too thin to respond quickly. Protecting our students from a murderer is a battle against time.
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What we’ve done in the past isn’t working any longer. A uniformed school resource officer is a visible sign of authority on campus. That is an effective deterrent most of the time. That deterrent works right up until the moment it doesn’t.
We have many examples when attackers either waited for the uniformed officer to leave campus, or when murderers began their attack by killing the uniformed officer or driving him away from the school. Sadly, we have also seen recent examples of police officers who hid outside the school while our children died.
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One dedicated officer ran toward the sound of gunfire and arrived too late. Yes, he responded as fast as he could, but he also saw a student who was horribly wounded in the attack. That student would die a short time later at the hospital. This long serving police officer and SWAT cop knows that a few seconds make the difference between life and death. Given his experience, this officer wants armed school staff to protect students. He knows that teachers are closer to the students than he is. Therefore, teachers can respond faster to an attack on their school.
That isn’t a feeling or an opinion. That is the hard lesson this officer learned from an actual attack on a Colorado high school. Today, this officer instructs selected school staff on how to carry loaded firearm on campus. We might want to listen to him.
Lots of sheriffs will give you their opinion. It is more credible to ask sheriffs who have actual experience with armed staff in their county schools. I went to Ohio where the FASTER program has trained over a thousand school staff members. Ohio sheriffs have seen the programs from beginning to end. Sheriffs are an active part of the screening and the training process for armed school staff.
Who Says We Should Arm School Staff to Protect Our Children?
I spoke to the brain trust at Tactical Defense Institute (TDI). These men and women built the training curriculum recommended for school resource officers (SROs) across the country. These analysts and instructors also provided regional training for SWAT officers. They took their classes across the US to train local law enforcement instructors. They train the trainers.
The instructors at TDI examine police reports to uncover what works and what doesn’t work. It is their job to study new threats on the street and then recommend changes in the way law enforcement officers are trained. They looked at the attacks on our schools and said that school resource officers alone were not enough to protect our students.
For one thing, there were too many times when SROs were not on campus. In addition, the SROs were an obvious target during an attack. The SROs were also spread too thin to respond quickly. Protecting our students from a murderer is a battle against time.
-------
What we’ve done in the past isn’t working any longer. A uniformed school resource officer is a visible sign of authority on campus. That is an effective deterrent most of the time. That deterrent works right up until the moment it doesn’t.
We have many examples when attackers either waited for the uniformed officer to leave campus, or when murderers began their attack by killing the uniformed officer or driving him away from the school. Sadly, we have also seen recent examples of police officers who hid outside the school while our children died.
-----
One dedicated officer ran toward the sound of gunfire and arrived too late. Yes, he responded as fast as he could, but he also saw a student who was horribly wounded in the attack. That student would die a short time later at the hospital. This long serving police officer and SWAT cop knows that a few seconds make the difference between life and death. Given his experience, this officer wants armed school staff to protect students. He knows that teachers are closer to the students than he is. Therefore, teachers can respond faster to an attack on their school.
That isn’t a feeling or an opinion. That is the hard lesson this officer learned from an actual attack on a Colorado high school. Today, this officer instructs selected school staff on how to carry loaded firearm on campus. We might want to listen to him.
Lots of sheriffs will give you their opinion. It is more credible to ask sheriffs who have actual experience with armed staff in their county schools. I went to Ohio where the FASTER program has trained over a thousand school staff members. Ohio sheriffs have seen the programs from beginning to end. Sheriffs are an active part of the screening and the training process for armed school staff.
