Armed Guards

Did you notice where armed guards are placed?  Armed guards are assigned to the President (ask the Secret Service has that has been working lately).  Armed guards are assigned to Brinks’ trucks. Armed guards are posted at many banks.  Armed guards cruise the mall.  Armed guards are posted in some schools.  Armed guards are posted at jewelry stores.  Armed guards are posted at hundreds of concert venues.  Ironically, armed guards are often posted at gun shops.  Armed guards are posted at wedding reception banquet halls.  Armed guards are posted at museums.  Armed guards are posted at The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (breath-taking, by the way). Armed guards are posted around Ft. Knox. Now, notice where they are not posted.  Armed guards are not posted at manure piles nor at garbage dumps.  Why is that?  Simple, because there is nothing valuable to protect…unless you like to hoard natural fertilizer and well, I’m not going there.

Although we do not have armed guards at our school there is a great deal to protect on the inside of our building.  When I was student teaching in 1979 at an inner-city school in Indianapolis, there was a squad of armed police officers in our building.  Oddly enough, that did not make me feel more safe, but it did increase the size of my pupils (not a synonym for students in this case). While the obvious message here is that we are the protectors of our students in a physical sense, we are also their protectors in another way. We are “armed” in different ways that protect the education of our kids. Generally speaking, parents want two things from their child’s school – safety for their children and a good education.  We have safeguards in place for the former from emergency lanyards to visitors badges to emergency protocols to locked doors to “Wet Floor” signs.  What about the latter of these two desires?  Are we guarding the provision of a good education?  Are we doing everything we can to provide for the unique needs of each student?  Are we going the extra mile?  Are we staying free of providing excuses?  Are we using the data that comes in to plan future remedial or enrichment lessons?  Arewe partnering with their parents to help in the common goal of their child being successful?  Are we doing what is right and avoiding what is wrong? Are we providing useful feedback to the kids?  Are we providing a safe place for them to land?  We have to be guardians of the valuable 930+ students in our care. We are not the landfill.  We have to be armed as if we are protecting Ft. Knox. Actually, we are protecting something far more valuable.

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Here we go…round II…Browns vs The Pukesburgh Squealers…I mean, Pittsburgh Steelers…this time on the shores of Lake Erie.  Losing would cause Mary to hide all of the sharp knives…not a good mix with Plavix…