Up in Arms

I trust these people with the lives of my family”

-Superintendent David Thweatt

At the Harrold Independence School in Texas teachers are allowed to carry firearms. Superintendent David Thweatt says Harrold’s teachers must protect their students. The school is 30 miles from the cloest police station. “The only thing you’ll get if you scream out here is a rattlesnake or a coyote looking your way” he says. The district can’t afford security, so it had teachers to carry weapons instead. But with teachers carry guns it creates a putting kids at risk.

Statistically, the safest place for a child to be is in school right? We may have problems in our schools, but not to the point where we need to arm our teachers. I think that teachers carrying guns is a little extreme. But as a high school student I think that more measures must be taken to protect children such as, metal detectors.

In other countries like Thailand, where they have been waging a bloody fight with Muslim separatists for the last two years, some teachers carry weapons for self defense as they are viewed as part of the government. In Israel, teachers are not allowed to carry weapons in the school, but security guards at the entrances are armed. Children in countries such as Israel and Thailand are far more at risk to daily violence than students in America.

I think this a bad idea but students like me are unprotected, sitting in class, are basically "sitting ducks" for any sort of violence, whether it is from within the school, or from others coming in from outside the school.