Student safety shouldn’t come down to dollars and cents

I read the recent opinion column from Amy McGahran (“Study the implications of bringing in a school resource officer,” April 13) concerning the issue of school resource officers and would like to point out several conditions that were not apparent.

The two main points brought up were the costs of resource officers and other ways that the funds could be used and also the apparent lack of deterrence for school shootings or gun-related incidents.

There is no doubt that all of the underlying conditions that lead people to engage in school shootings must be addresses before any long-term reduction in these shootings can be realized.

The issue of deterrence was also mentioned as not being influenced by police presence at schools.

The point that has not been discussed is that the main issue is not in deterring the attacks. In most of the mass shootings the shooter is either not concerned about his/her personal safety or suicidal as has been seen repeatedly.

The primary concern should be in the cases where warning signs are either not present or not recognized, the resulting shooting is stopped as quickly as possible.

Time is a major concern in these events as shown by the difference in lives lost in the Uvalde, TX and Nashville, TN school shootings. In the Uvalde case, from the time of the initial alarm until it was stopped, 1 hour and 19 minutes passed. Twenty-one students and teachers lost their lives in that event. In Nashville, 13 minutes elapsed from the initial alarm until it was over. Six students and teachers were lost there.

In Nashville, it should be noted that it took 11 minutes for police to arrive and only two more minutes to end the shooting. The question is how many lives could have been saved if an officer had been present at the time of the original alarm.

There is no doubt that school shootings are among the most heinous crimes that can be committed. However, in the short term, a two-pronged attack on the problem is necessary.

First, even though hopefully in most cases the resource officer will not be needed, when a shooting starts, fast response by the resource officer can shorten the resolution time, even if only restricting movement of the shooter until more police arrive.

Second, society should not make financial decisions on an either/or basis where school safety is involved. Our children deserve better than that.

Thomas Perazella lives in New Britain Township.

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