I am so Inspired

The violence in a school in Connecticut is beyond description; the pain parents must be going through is beyond imagination.  But I am inspired by our leaders.

First, Governor Perry comes out and says all our schools must update their emergency operation plans (EOP).  Then Commissioner Williams sends out a memo to all superintendents telling them to do what the governor said to do.  Then the Texas School Safety Center published the names of 78 districts that have not updated their mandated emergency operation plans.  Then we interview the superintendent in the only school district in the state that allows teachers to carry concealed weapons at school.  Then our Governor says teachers should be allowed to carry guns at school.

We have lost our minds.  Is there any rational thought left in this universe?  Did the killing spree in Connecticut occur at the only school without an emergency procedure plan?  Will writing a plan prevent this from happening?  Could the teachers in that building possibly have done anything more than they did to save children?  If the principal had been carrying a hand gun and stepped out in the hallway to confront an assault rifle 20 yards away would the outcome have been any different?  Not just no, but hell no!

I should be ashamed instead of inspired.  What kind of bureaucratic malarkey is this?  So the Gov and the Commish have now covered their butts because if it happens in Texas they can say, “Well, we told them to update their plans.”  This is so ludicrous it makes me want to spit.  It so cheapens the real experience of the folks in Connecticut that I believe Perry and Williams should have mandatory empathy transplants and ego amputations.

There is nothing we can do in a school when a deranged man with heavy armament shows up at our door.  If the first classroom he stepped in were all off-duty SWAT guys he would have killed all of them too.  To have teachers carrying loaded weapons in a sanctuary for child safety is blasphemy and we should all stand up and yell so.  This was a freak incident:  a deranged person with weaponry committed to killing and not caring about his own life.  No one can stop such a person.  Even the Secret Service acknowledges that as they guard the President. 

How do we ensure safety?  We cannot.  Life is a risk.  How do we improve the safety of our kids in schools?  It is not by writing plans.  It is not by arming teachers.  It is by hiring more teachers so that the ratio goes down and we know the kids.  It is by spending more money on mental health in our communities to counsel our most deranged and dangerous souls.  It might even help to get assault rifles off the street.  That is all we can do.  But we should do that!  Now!

OK.  Now I’m inspired to update our EOP and send it to the Texas Center for School Safety so I can get checked off the list and not be bureaucratically hassled for failing to save my kids should such an event happen here. 

Deeply inspired.

(Poppycock and balderdash!)