SCHOOLS: By all means, protect kids

While politicians and national news media focus their sights on banning certain kinds of guns and high capacity magazines, very little is changing in regard to the safety of our children.

I have a grandchild attending a public school in North Idaho and hope that Coeur d’Alene School District is weighing the possibility of arming and training some additional personnel to protect the schools.

My wife and I are moving to Post Falls from the Seattle area where people seem to be so paralyzed by fear of guns that those who are supposed to lead are unwilling to take many of the precautions that will keep the schools safe. For example, the school superintendent in Federal Way recently stated, “But the reality is, if a gunman wants to do what these gunmen want to do…there’s little that anyone can do to stop them.”

I am convinced that most people in Idaho understand that such a statement results from a seriously warped form of political correctness that is contributing to the paralysis of some leaders. Unless Idaho has changed a lot, that superintendent would be looking for a new job right now if he had said that in Kootenai County!

It is time for school districts across the country to empower parents, school personnel and others to get trained and armed in order to provide a low cost means of supplementing existing security in the schools.

MARK KNAPP

Federal Way, Wash.