'Arm the good guys'? Kentucky and other states weigh adding guns to schools.
| Frankfort, Ky.
The urgent drumbeat has swelled since Marjory Stoneman Douglas High in Florida became the latest school to be invaded by a shooter armed with an AR-15: We have to do something. Everyone from the students themselves to their parents, the Broward County sheriff, state lawmakers, and the president agree on the need for more measures to ensure confidence that children can make it home safely from class.
What that something should look like, though, is a matter of intense debate. The students, their parents, and gun-control advocates want a ban on assault-style weapons. In red states and the White House, the solution being raised with greater frequency is putting good guys with guns in US schools.
That鈥檚 what Kentucky state Sen. Steve West is proposing. The Republican lawmaker filed his state鈥檚 bill the same day a student opened fire in a western Kentucky high school in late January, killing two students and injuring 18 other people.
鈥淢y bill will not save the world,鈥� he says in an interview. 鈥淭his is a true stop-gap measure. [We鈥檙e] just trying our best to fill in a hole and fill that hole in school safety in Kentucky.鈥�
Speaking in his office in Frankfort 鈥� a few weeks after the Marshall County shooting in Kentucky and a week before the Broward County shooting in Florida 鈥� he regrets even having to consider the measure, which would give school districts the ability to place full-time armed "marshals" in schools. The marshals could be former cops or soldiers, or teachers and staff with adequate training
鈥淚 don鈥檛 want to be filing this bill. I wish we didn鈥檛 have to address this situation,鈥� he says, but 鈥渨e鈥檙e at a line where we need to do something to address the problem.鈥�
Five school shootings so far in 2018 have resulted in serious physical injury or death 鈥� including the fatal shooting of 17 students and teachers at Marjory Stoneman 鈥� and West鈥檚 is one of several measures states have immediately begun to explore.
These share one basic feature: more guns in and around schools. In Florida鈥檚 Broward County, sheriff鈥檚 deputies have been ordered . On Friday, Florida Gov. Rick Scott proposed a raft of measures, including raising the minimum age to buy a gun to 21. The Republican governor called for a mandatory law enforcement officer in every public school and for mandatory "active shooter training" for students and faculty. In Alabama, a lawmaker has filed a bill the state鈥檚 public school teachers. The Maryland state legislature , and many school districts in the state already have armed school resource officers (SROs).
Indeed, while the debate over armed security in schools has reached a roar in the nine days since the Parkland, Fla., shooting, security officers in general have quietly become increasingly prevalent in US schools. But when it comes to preventing school shootings, experts say there is no conclusive evidence on their effect. In fact, research raises more questions: What level of training should security officers receive before being armed on campus? Where should the guns be kept? Should officers have other disciplinary powers and be able to arrest students?
There is anecdotal evidence of officers engaging and stopping school shooters, such as a 2014 shooting . But there is anecdotal evidence of the opposite happening: During the shooting in Florida, an armed SRO waited outside while the massacre occurred, the Broward County sheriff says. 鈥淒evastated, sick to my stomach, there are no words,鈥� Sheriff Scott Israel said Thursday, announcing that the SRO resigned.
鈥淭his is a fairly consistent response to acts of school violence,鈥� says Jason Nance, a professor at the University of Florida Levin College of Law who focuses his research on school discipline and police in schools, says of the impulse to add armed security to schools.
鈥淭he problem in my view,鈥� he adds, 鈥渋s that these are not really adequate long-term solutions to promote safe learning environments.鈥�
'Terrible' but infrequent
Law enforcement officers 鈥� particularly in the form of SROs, police officers specially trained for schools 鈥� have become quietly prevalent in schools across the country. In 1975 only 1 percent of US schools had an officer assigned to them. By 2007 that figure had risen to 40 percent. Research on their effectiveness cuts both ways. Crime on school property drops when SROs are present, some studies show. Recent research, however, has shown that a stronger law enforcement presence in schools can lead to more students being diverted into the criminal justice system for relatively minor offenses previously handled by teachers.
While the idea of having a law enforcement officer patrolling a school is increasingly accepted, whether they should be armed is still an open question. Officers in Boston and New York, for example, are unarmed, with a Boston police official 聽that even allowing officers to carry pepper spray 鈥渨ould drive a wedge between our students and the school police.鈥�
No one really knows what the best approach is, at least scientifically. A 2013 report found 鈥渃onflicting conclusions about whether SRO programs are effective at reducing school violence鈥� and that 鈥渞esearch does not address whether SRO programs deter school shootings.鈥�
The problem researchers have is that while school shootings undoubtedly happen too often, they 鈥渄on鈥檛 happen frequently enough that it鈥檚 very easy to predict what鈥檚 going to cause them,鈥� and thus whether armed security personnel would have a meaningful impact in preventing them, says Emily Owens, a criminologist at the University of California, Irvine, who has researched school police programs.
鈥淪ocial scientists are in an uncomfortable position that this is a terrible event that doesn鈥檛 happen frequently enough to lend it to analytical tools,鈥� she adds, a position that鈥檚 made more difficult by the federal government鈥檚 since 1996.
Some researchers point to what is done in other professions.
鈥淧rison guards don鈥檛 carry guns, for very good reason,鈥� writes Philip Cook, a professor emeritus at Duke University and an expert on both gun control and educational policy, in an email to the Monitor.
鈥淐ommon sense suggests it鈥檚 a bad idea to introduce guns into schools,鈥� he adds.
For their part, students from Marjory Stoneman say they don't believe that arming teachers 鈥� as the president suggested this week 鈥� would prevent other students from enduring what they have gone through. One junior says having a gun in the classroom would make her uncomfortable.
鈥淲e all think it is a bad idea. I only know two people out of the hundreds of us who went to Tallahassee 聽[to protest for gun control]聽who think it's a good idea,鈥� says junior Casey Sherman, who was in Spanish class on Valentine鈥檚 Day when the alarm went off. 鈥淭he money that would have to go to training the teachers could be put to better use. We think putting that funding 鈥� instead of in-depth training for teachers 鈥� put it toward better preparing officers for these types of situations so they could better react.鈥�
鈥淎nd God forbid the teacher hits a student,鈥� the 17-year-old adds.
What some researchers say they would prefer to see are resources put toward preventing students from opening fire in a school in the first place, by investing in counselors and social workers who could help students work through problems in nonviolent ways.
鈥淚t鈥檚 not clear that [SROs] promote safe learning climates, but we have a lot of research on what does promote safe learning climates. It has much more to do with the quality of relationships between students and teachers, and between teachers and parents,鈥� says Professor Nance.
鈥淭hat to me is a better solution,鈥� he adds, 鈥渞ather than have an [SRO] gun a student down after injuries have already taken place.鈥�
Kentucky's proposed solution
A school marshal in Kentucky would only be allowed to have a small firearm, and the gun would be kept in a lockbox 鈥渦ntil the need arises,鈥� says Mr. West. They would also need to have a concealed-carry permit. To get such a permit in Kentucky a person would have to take a gun training course. However, while the permit expires after five years, .
鈥淵ou鈥檙e putting yourself in a situation where someone maybe five years ago had a firearm training class but now they have a weapon in a school,鈥� says Professor Owens.
West, a Republican, says he would want to leave individual school districts as much latitude as possible to set their own training requirements for marshals. He does admit, however, that 鈥渨e do need probably to step [them] up a notch.鈥�
鈥淭he ideal situation for this bill is ex-military, ex-police,鈥� he adds.
For their part, veterans would probably be more than happy to do the job, according to Kentuckian Andrew Drury, who says he served two tours in Iraq for the US Army.
鈥淚 would say there鈥檚 a ton of veterans that are bored and would happily volunteer to stand in front of a school, armed,鈥� says Mr. Drury, speaking on a warm February morning in Lexington.
鈥淚 would trust them more than I trust anybody else,鈥� he adds. 鈥淎nd they鈥檇 volunteer; you wouldn鈥檛 even have to pay them.鈥�
But for some educators, that raises the issue of having people on school grounds who, while trained in handling firearms and dangerous situations, are not trained on interacting day-in day-out with children.
Standing outside William G. Conkwright Elementary School in Winchester, Ky., on a frosty morning last week, Sherry Browning, the assistant principal, says she wouldn鈥檛 be opposed to having armed marshals 鈥� so long as it鈥檚 someone who is 鈥渟pecially鈥� trained given 鈥渢he unexpectedness of [children鈥檚] reactions.鈥�
鈥淭hey need to be trained in all aspects of safety,鈥� Ms. Browning adds, 鈥渂ut if they were going to be in our building every day they would need to be trained in interacting with children so children wouldn鈥檛 be afraid.鈥�
National momentum building
At the national level, momentum for armed security at schools seems to be building.
President Trump hosted a 鈥渟chool safety roundtable鈥� on Thursday with state and local officials, taking to Twitter beforehand to say that, in addition to 鈥減ushing comprehensive background checks [for gun purchases] with an emphasis on mental health,鈥� he also supported arming 鈥渉ighly trained, gun adept teachers/coaches.鈥�
Later that day, in a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland, National Rifle Association chief Wayne LaPierre said that every community in America 鈥渕ust come together to implement the very best strategy to harden their schools, including effective, trained, armed security that will absolutely protect every innocent child in this country.鈥�
It represents something of a change of heart for Mr. Trump, who two days before the massacre in Florida had proposed a 2019 budget that would cut millions of dollars聽in schools. The budget also proposes a 50 percent cut to the Justice Department鈥檚 , which among other things .
In Frankfort, West says he would like schools in the state to have both armed marshals and more counseling. But what he wants above all 鈥� and what he has wanted for decades 鈥� is to do something. Because much as active shooter drills have become routine for America鈥檚 students, pushing for armed security in schools has become routine for him.
He recalls the first time he filed a school safety bill. It was 2016, and he was motivated then by the 1997 fatal shooting of three students during a prayer meeting at another Kentucky high school.
鈥淚f we don鈥檛 do something as a state, if we don鈥檛 do something in our schools, the same thing is going to happen,鈥� he recalls telling them.
Swamped by an arduous budget battle, however, the bill never saw the light of day. He expected it to suffer a similar fate this legislative session. Then the shooting in Marshall County happened.
鈥淎ll of a sudden it was Job 1 again,鈥� he says.
Staff writer Story Hinckley contributed to this report from Boston.
