SCHOOLS: Safety is paramount

Norm Gissel and I rarely find anything to agree about, but I must agree with what he said in a letter Sunday. The safety of our kids is the most important part of their education.

However, I think placing school resource officers in each school is going about the issue the wrong way. Think about an active shooter who enters a school: The first person he will seek to find and kill will be the resource officer because he will know that once he is out of the way, he will have a clear path to killing others.

In every school, there are probably several adults who have been trained in the use and care of firearms. Many have concealed carry permits. If several of them are armed, the shooter will not know who they are or even where they are. He will think twice about entering such school. Plus, to arm resource officers, and train them for this special task is going to be very expensive.

Rather than blaming the NRA for any school shooting, we ought to ask them for advice: How would they suggest we make our schools safe? There has to be a better way.

Or we could consult with such countries as Israel and Switzerland to see how they keep their schools safe.

JIM HOLLINGSWORTH

Coeur d’Alene