School Shootings

[OldDude]

Yet another tragic loss of innocent life today in Santa Fe, Texas. Yet again! As a school nurse, and one who is close to your children and my children, every day during school, these senseless losses tear at my heart...and yet again, it happened today - again.

So here is the relevance of my post to "allnurses." Nurses are, probably, the most accomplished and innovative, critical thinking, problems solving, life saving, "git-er-done," people on the planet. It appears "the experts" have contributed only to reliving the definition of insanity in regard to school shooting; doing the same thing and expecting a different result. Sometimes it takes someone from the outside looking in to find the golden key.

I am requesting your ideas, recommendations, suggestions, thoughts, etc., regarding what you think would prevent future school shootings; as you would a head to toe assessment, identification, and intervention of your patient, so to speak. Or from any other relationship you have to school age children.

I am requesting genuine input. Sarcasm and political attacks are not welcome. If you don't have a contribution you think would be helpful, please don't.

If this turns out how I'm hoping it will, I intend to print the entire thread and mail it to the Governor of Texas, Greg Abbott; opinions from nurses from around the world - how to stop the insanity of school shootings!

Thank you!

[Leader25, ASN, BSN, RN]

Arm the teachers, body cam ,video cam like in the casinos. observe from centralized location,bring back truant officers.I dont really know It was safe when we went to school back in the prehistoric times.We had truant officers,juvenile delinquent cards, and the teacher or nuns could beat the crap out of you.There were special schools for trouble makers.

[klone, MSN, RN]

Most teachers DO NOT WANT TO BE ARMED. They were hired to be educators, not law enforcers.

[OldDude]

Most teachers DO NOT WANT TO BE ARMED. They were hired to be educators, not law enforcers.

I don't know about that. What I can say that is a fact is I have a Texas license to carry a handgun. Texas law won't allow me to possess my weapon inside of a school building. I would if I could. Of course I am not a teacher; I'm a school nurse.

[pixierose, BSN, RN]

I don't know about that. What I can say that is a fact is I have a Texas license to carry a handgun. Texas law won't allow me to possess my weapon inside of a school building. I would if I could. Of course I am not a teacher; I'm a school nurse.

I don't know, OldDude. Maybe it's regional, maybe situational (again, I'm only 25 minutes away from Newtown). All the teachers I'm still friends and acquaintances with want no part of law enforcement by this initiative (so purely anecdotal), and there is heavy resistance from the state education association.

[hawaiicarl, BSN, RN]

1. Gun Control - Get rid of the "America **** ya" mentality

2. Maternity+Paternity leave - How the hell are you supposed to raise functioning children when 6 weeks after they are born parents go back to work, join the rest of the first world countries!

3. Get rid of special interest lobby groups that bribe politicians so their industry makes even more billions - pharmacy, weapons dealers, nra, health care

Cheers

[OldDude]

I don't know, OldDude. Maybe it's regional, maybe situational (again, I'm only 25 minutes away from Newtown). All the teachers I'm still friends and acquaintances with want no part of law enforcement by this initiative (so purely anecdotal), and there is heavy resistance from the state education association.

When I reread my post it sounded challenging. That's wasn't my intent. I don't know about...if any teachers would be interested in carrying on campus. I only wanted to state what I would do if I could, legally. Thank you.

[brownbook]

I don't know about that. What I can say that is a fact is I have a Texas license to carry a handgun. Texas law won't allow me to possess my weapon inside of a school building. I would if I could. Of course I am not a teacher; I'm a school nurse.

There were two armed security officers at Santa Fe at the time of the shooting. At least that's what one news article reported?

[OldDude]

There were two armed security officers at Santa Fe at the time of the shooting. At least that's what one news article reported?

It appears that is the report. It was reported one of them was shot in the upper arm and had surgery to save him. Apparently the shooter gave himself up when confronted by police. I think it's a testament to the professionalism of the police officers that he was allowed to do that.

[akulahawkRN, ADN, RN, EMT-P]

There were two armed security officers at Santa Fe at the time of the shooting. At least that's what one news article reported?

Those "armed security officers" were police officers working in a role of "School Resource Officer" and they are armed and able to quickly respond to violent incidents. The SROs at MSD in Parkland, Florida refused to respond and engage the shooter until well after the shooting was done and even then, the shooter was long gone. He was arrested about an hour later. The Santa Fe, Tx shooter gave up upon being confronted by two officers. He's now in custody and will very likely be looking at 40 years in prison. Because he's 17, he won't get life w/o parole and he won't face the death penalty, even after killing 10 people and wounding 10 more.

The MSD shooting could have been greatly reduced had the SROs there actually followed protocol and rushed into the area to engage the shooter.

[akulahawkRN, ADN, RN, EMT-P]

Most teachers DO NOT WANT TO BE ARMED. They were hired to be educators, not law enforcers.

This is generally true of most teachers but this is not true of all teachers. It doesn't actually matter if there any armed staff (or teachers) on a school campus... if people are allowed to legally concealed carry on school grounds and in buildings (regardless of being school employees or not) then people that want to attack schools won't know if there are armed people on campus or not. Sure, if you have SROs on campus, that's fine, but you know where they are because they're in uniform and therefore are easy to spot. The people that conceal carry are usually difficult to spot. You don't know if there's zero or if there are 10. You just don't know.

It's a known fact that people that have a license to carry commit fewer crimes than even police officers. They're known "good guys" and they're subject to continuous background checks. California used to allow concealed carry license holders to carry on any school/college/university grounds but about 2 years ago (as I write this) the state made this illegal, despite there being no actual problems, just a knee-jerk reaction to a vice-principal being "made" as a concealed carry holder. No shots, no injuries...

[Guest219794]

I don't know about that. What I can say that is a fact is I have a Texas license to carry a handgun. Texas law won't allow me to possess my weapon inside of a school building. I would if I could. Of course I am not a teacher; I'm a school nurse.

I am curious about your qualifications to handle a weapon in a combat situation. Military veteran, ex police? How do you keep your skills high enough to engage in live fire around children? What would your plan be as far as carrying and securing the weapon in a school? Open or concealed? Or locked up?

I can tell you that in my state, getting a concealed weapons permit in no way qualified me to engage in combat in public. The first go around required me to prove my ability to write a check. Then, the laws got stricter and it is now a requirement to sit in a class that nobody has ever failed. Then write a check.

You my well be highly qualified in this regard, if so, what do you feel the minimum level of qualification should be for a school employee? Obviously simply owning a gun and and having a permit isn't enough. Trivia question: Which state allows blind people to concealed carry?

The current administration is certainly in favor of the idea of arming teachers. There is a rumor Sean Simpson may be nominated to head up the task force.

[klone, MSN, RN]

This is generally true of most teachers but this is not true of all teachers.

Which is why I did, in fact, say MOST teachers.