Should schools arm teachers and guards?

Habiba Ayman, ID:179933

Lately a hot debate ensues concerning whether teachers and security guards at schools should be armed or not. Some approve the concept and argue in defense of it in order to protect school students from any further accidents or fatal causalities, while others disapprove, and argue against because this breaks the image that the school is like home, and in a sense it has risks. Each argument is supported by reasons. A refutation is maintained to the first argument.

The first argument defends the concept of arming security guards and teachers by basing their argument on the analogy with banks and courts of laws. According to Heyitssal, there are armed security guards at banks to protect money, or to protect a small number of judges at courts. Children are the most valuable assets that deserve to be protected more than money. Secondly, this arming will prevent the further occurrences of accidents such as Columbine and Sandy Hook. Thirdly, schools cannot depend solely on seeking the help of police in case there is an assault, because the police will take minutes to arrive. In this time, there can be many deaths or injuries. Instead, if there are well trained security guards, they are already there at schools and can deal with the intruders at once. Fourthly, Juris Naturalis argues, if culprits realize the fact that schools are well armed, they will be discouraged to initiate an attack. Fifth, this provides the feeling of safety to the workers, teachers and students.

The counter argument holds that teachers and security guards are not professionally trained as policemen, therefore they can be irresponsible with the use of weapons, as Reni maintains. If one of the teachers or security guards has a violent temper, he can easily misuse the gun leading to fatal causalities. Also, beholding a teacher carrying a gun in the classroom creates an odd feeling in the psychology of the student regarding the mental concept of the school as a home substitute and the friendly and parental relationship between the teacher and student, because the child does not see the parent at home moving carrying a gun.

          According to Patricia Green, a child will come to school under the sensation that it is a prison, or a police station. Moreover, the security personnel are not badged as law enforcement officials. This poses extra danger . In addition, if a teacher enters the classroom carrying a gun, a student can find a way to take the gun and play with it.  Similarly, if the security guard is buddy with the student, he can allow students to hold the gun.

A refutation is maintained against the first argument. Wrike argues that it is preferable that police stations are located beside schools in order to be able to interfere as fast as possible whenever there is a threaten. Many organizations do not consent the very idea of arming a teacher. Also, the intruder has pre-planning prior the attack in order to induce the highest casualties . Logically, the first thing he will perform is to eliminate or paralyze the armed defender to prevent the latter from halting the assault.  That is, if a culprit intruder decides to cause harm, the security guard cannot stop him. Policemen are well trained enough to be able to deal with these circumstances. If there is an urgent need to arm schools, then it is enough to arm security guards , but arming the teachers is impractical and silly. Having armed security guards at schools is favorable from a safety perspective but can make the children feel uncomfortable and intimidated.