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Education

A Look at ‘Pioneer’ School District With Armed Presence in Place Since 1958

Jan. 21, 2013 6:45pm Liz Klimas

Genesee County Schools in Michigan Have Had Armed Presence Since 1958

Armed security guard Howard Anderson, from Phoenix Protective Corporation, patrols South Ridge Elementary School as students are released for the day, Thursday, Jan. 17. (Photo: AP/The Columbian, Steven Lane)

Shortly after the tragic shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., it was suggested that perhaps teachers should carry guns at school or some sort of armed presence should be on the premises.

TheBlaze has told you about schools that already allow such a practice — a Texas school begun doing so in 2007 and just this year an Ohio school board voted unanimously to allow custodial staff to carry firearms. But these are both rather recent allowances — not much of a case study. Over the weekend, MLive took at look at school districts within a Michigan County that have had an armed presence since 1958.

The Flint School District in Genesee County is reported to be one of the first in the nation to have a regular police presence. Some of the schools employ armed security guards. This means someone carrying a firearm as a protective measure could be at any school within the county at any time.

“We were certainly a pioneer in that regard,” district spokesman Bob Campbell said according to MLive.

While a police presence isn’t the same as arming teachers or custodial staff, it’s worth taking a look at a school that have had firearms on campus for several decades.

After Sandy Hook and then after returning to class with the new year, schools in the area encountered several false calls about shots fired and other threats. This shows even with an armed presence, they’re not exempt from these unsettling hoaxes. But they are quick to respond with plans and protocols long in place. MLive also reported that they’re hoping to work even more with law enforcement and other school districts so security plans are even more cohesive.

Here’s what MLive reported on one parent’s perspective about gun-toting police being on school campuses:

Flint resident Latasha Veal, who has a daughter in 12th grade at Flint Southwestern Classical Academy, said it is comforting to know there are police officers on patrol at the school.

“Half the time I’m at work, even when I’m at home, I worry about what’s going on in the schools,” Veal said.

Veal said the things she sees in the news, like the Sandy Hook shooting, make her worry about what it would be like to have something like that happen at her child’s school.

“I just don’t want anything to happen to my kid, or anyone else’s kid, for that matter,” Veal said. “So to have them here, that takes a burden off me.

“I wish there could be more.”

A quick search of other local news coverage regarding armed protection at schools shows that many across the country are at least considering adding it. The Ridgefield School District in southwest Washington announced it will add at least two armed guards to each of its schools. Armed guards in Hernando County, Fla., schools were removed last week after being put in place after Sandy Hook. The superintendent said he doesn’t expect that they will return due to the district’s lack of budget for them.

But does the presence of armed protection actually cut down on school violence? Barbara Raymond, the director of schools and neighborhoods policy for The California Endowment, the state’s largest health foundation, wrote recently on this question:

Despite the growing number of school police officers, research that I and others have conducted has been inconclusive about whether having armed security on campus improves safety. While Sandy Hook Elementary School didn’t have an armed guard, Columbine High School did and so did Virginia Tech. In fact, an armed campus guard was a victim in the most recent shooting at Virginia Tech in December 2011 and armed members of the military were not able to prevent the shootings at Ft. Hood. The mere presence of armed guards does not guarantee public safety.

While we don’t know whether school police make schools safer, we do know that having them on campus means more young people are being charged with crimes. Police are not typically trained in youth development and child psychology and how to best respond to misconduct, sometimes leading to an escalation of conflict on campuses and charges being filed for misbehavior that used to be handled by the principal or a school counselor. One study found that campuses with school resource officers had nearly five times the rate of arrests for disorderly conduct as schools without an officer, even when accounting for school poverty. And in Los Angeles, in the last three years school police issued 33,000 tickets to young people that required them to go to court – with 40% of those tickets going to kids younger than 14.

Armed guards, which have been long been in schools, also doesn’t address the discussion of arming teachers themselves. Many commenting on MLive’s article stated that while they would support armed protection, they wouldn’t want it to be the teachers.

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Comments (25)

bamanana
Posted on January 22, 2013 at 1:09pm
I went to school in the 60′s in B’ham AL & was escorted off of my bus by “National Guard” because of de-segregation ordered by the democrat president Lyndon Johnson. My parents explained to my brothers & me what to expect & why the guard would be there. Now those same dems want a gun free school zone! Believe me I felt safe because as a white child I was afraid of the KKK because my church & my parents taught us that every person regardless of color was a human being & should be treated with diginity! By the way most of my family were republicans! Oh we even had a rifle corp with a shooting range! No deaths no violence.

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2GodBeTheGlory
Posted on January 22, 2013 at 10:56am
The problem can be traced to the courts. The courts where the first to restrict a persons right to bear arms within the court room, however, they used “regulation”, not law, to do this as the Judges knew they where going against the 2nd amendment. So then the military “commanders” got concerned about 17 years old’s having loaded weapons around them, lets “regulated” their access. Then the federal did it an so on, and so forth. Hence, where we are today – no guns in school and now we have problems with guns. Does anyone see the problem? The courts are the problem, and because we do not hold the courts to the supreme law of the land, we end up with country broken and on the verge of total destruction.

It is not useful to point fingers at the elected officials, as they DO NOT have the power to “REGULATE” or prohibit arms, it is the court that ALLOWS these illegal laws to exists. The 2nd admendment is completely clear. We, meaning you and I, are allowing these criminals to continue to break the supreme law of the land. So the question is, what can we do about it? What should we do about it? And why have we not punished those that break the SUPREME LAW of the land?

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Melika
Posted on January 22, 2013 at 8:43am
Gee, I wonder why they had armed security guards there since 1958? There’s nothing that says “safe, wonder school” like armed cops roaming the hallways.

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- Obama Snake Oil Co
  Posted on January 22, 2013 at 9:32am
  Back in the 70s in NC, our teachers were armed. Not all of them, just some of them chose to. They kept their pistols in their desk drawers. So I wondered if there was ever a case that a teacher shot a student….I googled it only to find the teachers in America were being shot only. Not one even cited any time when a teacher opened up a gun on their students. So the point is, let teachers Conceal and Carry for the safety of the schools….I think the only empty book out there is teachers that went postal on classrooms. This whole issue is gun control, not the safety of kids as the government sees them as expendable resources.
  
  Report this comment
- grimmster
  Posted on January 22, 2013 at 10:47am
  This is all fine and dandy, but i still question, after doing some research, that the Sandy Hill “massacre” actually happened…..i know conspiracy b/s, but look up the evidence yourself,its out there.One main reason to, the story about what guns he used and how many shooters there were has changed more times than i can count…….
  
  Report this comment
farmwife
Posted on January 22, 2013 at 1:28am
Barbara Raymond is wrong “and armed members of the military were not able to prevent the shootings at Ft. Hood.” Everyone is missing this point in the article. At Fort Hood, there were NO armed military. As you come onto the base, all of your weapons are secured – that means that if all the soldiers were armed, I bet there wouldn’t be 13 dead.

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- grimmster
  Posted on January 22, 2013 at 10:50am
  @Farmwife.
  You are correct, no one carries on base, except mp’s,no one.All personnel comeing home from a war zone,have their weapons taken from them and secured as soon as they arrive home…..
  
  Report this comment
skyguy51
Posted on January 21, 2013 at 8:55pm
If a teacher with a concealed weapons permit wants to carry a firearm and is willing to accept that responsibility then let them. If a teacher choose not to carry that is their option also. Concealed means just that concealed. These mental cases aren’t stupid, they pick gun free zones for a reason. I would much rather depend on two or three teachers than a no guns allowed sign and a locked door.

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- Grey Eagle
  Posted on January 21, 2013 at 11:24pm
  A lot of teachers are ex-military or in some instances ex-police. Concealed weapons with several teachers who no one knows is packing is a big safety feature. The reason so many injured and killed personnel at Ft. Hood, was that the soldiers were NOT allowed to have their weapons with them at the location where a large group were preparing to go to Afghanistan. Hassan chased them down and shot them. It was like shooting fish in a barrel. I lived in Texas during that incident and it was heavily reported there.
  
  Report this comment
banjarmon
Posted on January 21, 2013 at 8:37pm
Armed School teachers as School Marshals is the only way to go. We trust teachers with our kids education. I would trust trained armed teachers with my kids life!

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- Magyar
  Posted on January 21, 2013 at 9:49pm
  Trusting ‘them’ with your children’s education is your first mistake–I’m not at all sure I want some left wing moron with a gun in their hand— I can see them hesitating to consider whether or not to pull the trigger—Bang they’re dead and possibly the kidos!
  
  Trained armed security!
  
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Disavowed 1
Posted on January 21, 2013 at 8:36pm
You witnessed a coronation today.

https://www.popvox.com/bills/us/113/hjres15

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Disavowed 1
Posted on January 21, 2013 at 8:33pm
Investigate into this matter please.

https://www.popvox.com/bills/us/113/hjres15

You witnessed a coronation today.

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heeltar
Posted on January 21, 2013 at 8:09pm
My very liberal sister-in-law made the comment after wayne pierre of the NRA suggested putting armed guards at schools that he was just another complete wacko, anybody suggesting putting more guns in or near schools? After she finished her diatribe, I simply asked “so what would be your solution”. She had none, other than taking all guns to which I replied ” if they take away our 2nd amendment, who will stop them from taking every other right”. The evening did not go well.

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- soybomb315_II
  Posted on January 21, 2013 at 8:15pm
  if a school feels like they need armed guards, they can have them (and some do)…..Putting armed guards in EVERY school is not the answer
  
  Report this comment
- Stelex
  Posted on January 21, 2013 at 8:19pm
  They never do, my family is the same, haven’t talked in quite a while.
  
  Report this comment
- 700P
  Posted on January 21, 2013 at 10:27pm
  Liberals mock LaPierre and then one of the 23 Executive Actions is “funding for School Resource Officers” i.e. armed cops in schools. So they’re admitting LaPierre is right that only a good guy with a gun can stop a bad guy with a gun while cowering behind semantics (like Bob Costas in a theater).
  
  Funny the first thing the Liberal windbag worries about is the potential for more kids to be arrested (what I there was no cop…is she suggesting there wouldnt be any crime?). GTFOO my country.
  
  Report this comment
rrice66
Posted on January 21, 2013 at 7:32pm
…armed members of the military were not able to prevent the shootings at Ft. Hood.

I thought “members of the military” were prohibited from carying firearms while on base???

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- Exiled
  Posted on January 21, 2013 at 7:52pm
  You are correct.
  
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- Dismayed Veteran
  Posted on January 22, 2013 at 10:58am
  When I was in (a really long time ago) all weapons were secured in the unit armory. They were issued when needed for training and returned to the armory. The only time live ammunition was issued was at a firing range. At the end of firing, the soldier demonstrated he had no live rounds by tuning the ammunition pouch upside down. All M16/M14 were verified as unloaded.
  
  The Army was concerned about a soldier intentionally starting a shooting spree, an accident and theft of either weapons or cartridges.
  
  Report this comment
Stelex
Posted on January 21, 2013 at 7:26pm
We are allowing the few to preach to the many. Because they have the media voice they seem like more than they are. They are not. We need to capture the message. We need to take back the colleges. Or we need to go to war. The next four years will be an all out assault on America, American traditions and what was and is almost already lost, the American attitude. Progressives are enemy number one, the media is number two, the schools are number three. After reading some of my sons 9th grade homework, I pulled him out of public school. If they get one, two generations at the most all is lost. If we make it that far. We are an occupied country.

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- Zoe
  Posted on January 21, 2013 at 7:55pm
  A megaphone amplifies the voice of one……..
  
  Report this comment
AxelPhantom
Posted on January 21, 2013 at 6:58pm
“One study found that campuses with school resource officers had nearly five times the rate of arrests for disorderly conduct as schools without an officer…”

Another way to say this is “Schools without resource officers have five times the amount of disruptions in learning as schools with a resource officer.”

Our schools have ‘em and I like it.

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DarkJello
Posted on January 21, 2013 at 6:58pm
So Barb from The California Endowment has statistically proven that many teenagers in our culture are law-breakers even if the police try to intervene? And she is surprised why? Our culture is beyond weak, of course we are failing in all areas–except student confidence… The universe absolutely does have a sense of humor. AmeriKa: land of the freebie and home of the bankrupt.

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Zoe
Posted on January 21, 2013 at 6:56pm
Military Schools were all armed when I went………

Lot of poking fun, hazing you name it…… no one crossed that line

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