Teachers union rejects NRA’s call for armed security in schools

washingtonexaminer.com ^ | December 21, 2012

[Tailgunner Joe]

American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten issued the following statement in reaction to National Rifle Association Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre’s press conference today:

After remaining silent for an entire week following the Newtown massacre, the NRA’s first comments were to call for more guns in our schools and our society. This is both irresponsible and dangerous. No matter how much money the NRA spends or propaganda it tries to spread, one thing is clear—the NRA is not serious about confronting the epidemic of gun violence in our nation.

Schools must be safe sanctuaries, not armed fortresses. Anyone who would suggest otherwise doesn’t understand that our public schools must first and foremost be places where teachers can safely educate and nurture our students.

[skeeter]

I guess this means the blood from any future school massacres is on the teachers unions’ hands.

[Craftmore]

Because that “No Gun Zone” is working so well,,

[two23]

That statement just pegged the stupid meter.

[Bryanw92]

“When schoolchildren start paying union dues, that’s when I’ll start representing the interests of school children.”

-Albert Shanker (September 14, 1928 – February 22, 1997) president of the United Federation of Teachers from 1964 to 1985 and president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) from 1974 to 1997.

[mnehring]

There was an armed guard at Best Buy today. I guess people are more concerned about protecting their cheap electronic crap than they are their kids.

[MeganC]

Does the teacher’s union want to remove the armed cops who are already in the schools?

[MestaMachine]

How many dead teachers does it take to change a lightbulb?

[muir_redwoods]

No one except the Terminator ever shot up a police station.

[randita]

Does the teacher’s union want to remove the armed cops who are already in the schools?

Great question. Most inner city schools have at least one cop assigned to them - more as children are arriving and leaving the schools as that's when incidents often occur.

[matt1234]

Randi Weingarten

[tacticalogic]

How about if we hire armed guards for the kids, and the teachers are on their own?

[SpaceBar]

If the political right fought down and dirty like the political left, we'd be screaming from the rooftops that this proves that the American Federation of Teachers' Union wants more school violence, but I realized a long time ago that the right couldn't PR themselves out of a wet paper bag.

[caveat emptor]

Anyone who would suggest otherwise doesn’t understand that our public schools must first and foremost be places where teachers can safely educate and nurture our students.



How's that working out, Randi ?

[Falcon4.0]

They could put Cops in schools on Monday, but they'd rather that the kids be a risk than have "Guns" be part of the solution.
We can afford a Police Officer sitting at every road construction site, but not at a School.
What are they saying, that they don't even trust a Police Officer around kids with a gun?
Let's put a Satellite Police Station in every School in America where they can do paper work and protect kids at he same time.
This reminds me of when the NRA introduced the Eddie Eagle Gun Safety Program to teach kids not to touch guns if they find one, to leave the area and tell an Adult. And Charles the Snakeman Schumer called it a "Cynical Ploy to create more Shooters, who become more NRA Members and who become NRA Voters."

[LifePath]

Knee jerk hysteria from the teacher’s unions. This is what amazes me: there already are armed police officers in two states that I know of: Texas and Florida. Yesterday when I stopped at a high school in my town, there was an armed police officer sitting behind the counter with the receptionist. Also, my brother is a deputy in Florida. He did a couple of years as a “School Resource Officer” - always armed.

[Spok]

They’re already in many schools. See nasro.org

[rfp1234]

If the teacher union doesn't like guns, then at least give the teachers the choice to either remain disarmed, or to be trained with tasers (or other non-lethal self-defense). Anything is better than being totally vulnerable.

They still need armed security in the schools as well.

Regardless, with this defeatist attitude, the teacher unions are only making another strong argument for right-to-work laws.

[Castigar]

“Schools must be safe sanctuaries, not armed fortresses.”

Yes, a gun-free zone is truly a safe sanctuary...oh wait!

I guess she is not familiar with schools in Israel - where no school massacres have occurred since they began having armed staff in the schools AFTER a school massacre occurred in just such a gun free zone safe sanctuary.

[EagleUSA]

What did anyone expect from these self-serving extortionists?? Caring logic? Something intelligent in the way of an informed solution?

Forget about it.