Guns, schools & safety, Texas style

Is the NRA serious?  Armed guards at all schools?

One week after the tragedy at Newtown where 20 children and 6 adults were killed, the powerful rifle association spoke out, saying our country needs to put an armed guard in every school in the nation. Just as our country does at banks, shopping malls and public facilities.

Can you imagine? Guards with guns don't fit the image of what a school should be: safe, a place of learning, young minds and budding ideals, right?

Yet the tragedy of Newtown is indeed a wake-up call that can't be ignored. We must keep our children safe! It's time to find a solution. The crazies with the assault rifles apparently aren't going away. Until our country bans citizens from having such, armed guards may be the best answer. And in Austin, Texas, just such a program has worked for more than 25 years.

The Austin Independent School District established its own police department as far back as 1986. With 68 officers, the department is charged to keep the 125 campuses, centers and adminstrative offices safe. The patrol division operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, year round. In 2008, the department became a recognized law enforcement agency under guidelines set by the state of Texas.

Beyond protection, the AISD Police Department also has a Junior Police Academy, which works with middle school students to motivate them "to be outstanding citizens through law enforcement education. An expansion of community policing, JPA transform the traditional role of the police officer into one of mentor and friend, while encouraging our young citizens to be partners, not adversaries, in building safer schools and communities."
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• Cherubs For Children, Inc.

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The canine unit adds safety of another level,  working to detect the odor of illegal narcotics and nitrates and components of explosives -- certainly threat issues to the safety of students.

While many across the country on Friday afternoon absorb the words of the NRA, some will be against it and others support it. Even some residents of Newtown said it's "off the mark."  One parent's reaction was that it will instill more fear in the children.

I beg to differ.

Had there been police on campus, would the gunman have been so ready and able to burst his way in and kill? Did not that horrific event of Dec. 14 "instill fear" in the Sandy Hook Elementary School children, especially now the young survivors, who may be terrified of going back to a classroom, scarred for life?

Police and security are there for protection. It seems to work well at AISD in Austin. I suspect most students feel confident that any violence will be acted upon by those trained officers -- and teachers won't have to step into the line of fire as the first defense.

It may not be a perfect solution, guards in schools, but from this part of Central Texas, a police department focused on the safety of students seems to be working out just fine.

It's not the NRA that is killing our children.

Life changing - For Newtown and so many

It's been less than a week since the chaos and carnage at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. The shattered dreams, lives and hearts will never be the same. It goes without saying that is the case for the families who lost a child.

Hundreds of thousands across the country -- no, world -- are shaken by this catastrophic event. So many are pained and injured by this assault on the innocent children, and it's time to take notice of the violence that we seem to just look away from instead of saying, "Enough!"

That likely includes the Lanza family, who lost two family members, survivors weighed with a heavy burden over what went wrong, who's responsible. Surely they never imagined their young man would commit such a heinous act. Surely they are choked with emotion and questions as is the rest of the country.

Much discussion is taking place about laws and guns and school safety -- do we add more barriers to places where are children should be naturally protected, in their schools? Do we restrict gun sales? Do we improve mental health care for those troubled by demons? So much, so many questions, and not all with clear-cut answers, but "yes" should win out.

In the end, I believe it gets down to the individual. What can each of us do? How do we make sense of this? How can I help? Is there anything I can do to stop the violence in our society?

I say, "Yes, there is." Because it takes one. One person can make a difference. One person can speak up, to another, and another and another -- to spread goodness and love and light when darkness seems to prevail. We each have a responsibility to "Love one another" and care.

To that end, I have been so moved by the shooting incident of Dec. 14, 2012, and formalized a nonprofit organization initially dedicated to raising money intended to help fund the construction of a permanent memorial for the Newtown shooting victims.

It's called "Cherubs For Children, Inc." and you can help make a difference today, with a donation.

I invite you to read the "Donate/About CFC" page to learn the "why" for this endeavor. Then I invite you to click on the "donate" link and contribute.

We are all part of the whole. We all, in our own ways, either spread love, or we spread hate. Take a stand -- choose to spread the Love and turn around this world of violence.

"Even so it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish." (Luke 18:14 NKJ)