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Armed guards in schools inhuman; Elizabeth Asche “Betty” Douglas; Beaver County Times; January 17, 2013.
Mrs. Douglas is a local artist and, according to previous letters, “is a retired Geneva College professor.” Previous letters from Mrs. Douglas are here, here, here, and here.
Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.
“The tyranny of fear and terror is the kind of regime we’ll live under if the NRA has its way. A building patrolled by armed guards is a concentration camp, not a school. Is that really how we want to educate our children?”
[RWC] Hyperbole alert.
Unfortunately, using armed guards in schools is not new. I think it’s fair to say nobody likes the idea regardless of where they stand on the right to bear arms. In any case, using armed guards in schools does not mean they patrol the halls like a prison.
As supporter of President Obama, I wonder what Mrs. Douglas now thinks of him. You see, Mrs. Douglas probably wrote this letter before Mr. Obama proposed a program to “give $150 million to school districts and law enforcement agencies to hire school resource officers, school psychologists, social workers, and counselors.” “School resource officer” is a euphemism for “specially trained police officers that work in schools.” If a school district believes it needs armed security on campus, that’s fine. That said, local taxpayers should pay for it, not federal taxpayers.
“We claim we can’t afford the humanizing subjects and experiences of the creative and performing arts, yet we’ll bear the cost of putting firearms in every classroom and corridor? Do we want to revive Hitler’s Nazi Youth Camps in the name of school security?”
[RWC] Mrs. Douglas appears to place “creative and performing arts” classes and classroom security on equal footing.
I think it’s wrong for Mrs. Douglas to compare Mr. Obama to Mr. Hitler just because he wants to increase our debt to help fund “specially trained police officers that work in schools.”
“With lame claims of ‘self-defense,’ will we abide living in a society with more guns than people? Will the ethical foundation of our culture supposedly founded on the concept of loving and respecting one another be ‘shot down’ as pointless?”
[RWC] Mrs. Douglas wrote of “lame claims of ‘self-defense.’” Please read my critiques of “A shaky ladder” and “Time for talking is over, gun control now” for more info on this topic.
“The combined total of years of successful teaching within my immediate family, including my late husband, daughters, son-in-law, sister and me, numbers nearly 200. None of us would teach in a school armed like a concentration camp, nor would we let our children attend such. The mindless pursuit of armed security is a tyranny in itself.”
[RWC] Did you notice Mrs. Douglas suggested no alternatives to armed guards in schools?
Who determined Mrs. Douglas and her “immediate family” were “successful” teachers?
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