Another School Shooting - "Isn't Anybody in Charge"?

By Peggy Ryan —— Bio and Archives May 24, 2018

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I'm sick and tired of these pseudo-adults wringing their hands, playing politics, and acting like impartial observers as our kids are gunned down. Arguments, discussions, conversations, legislation, all dangerous delays that leave our kids as sitting ducks while these people play the role of grown-up, while they "talk". It brings to mind the movie Deceived. Adrienne Saunders, thinks she's found a fake necklace, gives it to her daughter's friend, Carol Gingold. But the necklace is real and Adrienne has to get it back, her daughter's life depends on it. She goes to the Gringold's home:

Useless arguments, round tables, conversations, endless talk while the shooters keep killing children

The talk would have gone on forever because the kid would never willingly give up the necklace and the so-called "adults" would never forcefully take it from her. This is where we're at with our schools, useless arguments, round tables, conversations, endless talk while the shooters keep killing children. Government, school boards, and educators refuse to protect our children time after time. Columbine, should have made school security the #1 priority in every school district in the country yet little changed. Maybe no one really believed it could happen again, thought it was a devastating anomaly, a one-time act of unimaginable evil. But then Sandy Hook should have been a wake-up call. Good God, children gunned down, twice at that point. Yet again the pretend adults battle it out in political discourse, promise that someday they'll find answers. Meanwhile, our nation is again rocked by Parkland. More talk, more arguments, more promises to explore solutions. And now Santa Fe. The questions are always the same, how did they get in, how did they get the guns in. Americans go at each other's throats over guns as the media predictably attacks freedom as the cause but guns aren't the problem. The problem is we have a critical shortage of adults, of those who would move heaven and earth to keep our kids safe, those who can put their political views aside and act, fix it, today, now! We always say we can't know what we'd do if we were in the other person's shoes but I can safely say that if I were on the school board, a mayor or city council woman, even the governor, I would forbid another day to pass before we address security in every school, not a single day.

Let's trash the stupid "Common Core" program -- Use the Money for Common Sense Security

However, the biggest obstacle to real school security is money. Trust me, nothing gets the attention of politicians and school administrators like the almighty dollar. But hey, I have the solution. Let's trash the stupid "Common Core" program, the failed attempt to run local schools from Washington, and use that money, billions of dollars, for "common sense" security. Of course there would be one hell of a fight because Common Core is tax money trickling down to states, to school districts, an undisguised bribe to let the federal government have a hand in raising our children. Plus those educators have already invested so much of their precious time and resources into implementing Common Core. Surely we don't want them to go back to the drawing board, to develop curriculum themselves, how heartless! Still, I wonder how many metal detectors and security officers that kind of cash would buy. No matter which excuse, the kid's mental state, the time to go through metal detectors, or the almighty dollar, the madness has to end. The adults in the room have to stop spewing their political claptrap, stop debating the law, and protect these kids. Every single day these people soothe their virtuous consciences with talk, our children are at risk. Right now, this very moment, our kids are at risk, afraid to go to school in the morning because they can't trust the grown-ups to protect them. Have all schools abdicated responsibility to keep their students safe, no; there have been plots thwarted by safety officers, school shootings stopped by an armed presence including a recent incident in Illinois where a school shooting was stopped by a police officer working at the high school. Yet the Illinois House, in a stunning display of ignorance, has approved a plan to replace armed officers in schools with mental health professionals.

Isn't anybody in charge around here

Because why, Illinois? Do guns saving kid's lives offend your humanist sensibilities? Or more likely, does a good guy with a gun send the wrong gun-control message? Using our children for political posturing is untenable, unacceptable. Government doesn't have the right to use our children as political human shields, to make our schools killing fields in order to advance their personal narrative, to score political points. Yes, many schools have had security assessments, have hardened their schools to keep the bad guys out. Many now have armed security on campus to shoot back, to stop the killers, metal detectors to stop the guns. Still, it's not enough, never enough until every single school enacts policy to protect the kids. Adults should have school safety as their #1 concern, their only concern, until that school is locked down and there's armed protection on campus. But then like I said, we have a shortage of adults these days. So the next school shooting when everyone's asking how they got in, where they got the gun, had there been red flags, was there a mental health issue, I have a different question: Isn't anybody in charge around here