Under the Dome

Arming principals isn’t the answer

ELLEN RICE | Olympia • Published December 29, 2012

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Rep, Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, wishes the Newton, Conn., principal had a firearm to defend her students. Sorry, firing any gun accurately requires hand-eye coordination – just like tennis, if you don’t train, you’ll stink at it. Most principals have astonishingly full lives. Between career and family, they don’t have time (or the money) to go the gun club twice a week.

Sadly, we may learn that the young shooter’s rage may have been based in experiences with the educational system. Too many of our children are scarred by huge classes, underfunded and ancient curriculum, a lack of relevance of requirements to personal lives and a profession that completely refuses to police itself. (In our state a man convicted of molesting students kept his teaching credential). It doesn’t help that the National Rifle Association has never shown leadership in addressing the needs of our nation’s mentally ill. How about a tax of a dollar a bullet to fund solutions to PTSD and other disorders? There’s lots that need changing, but arming principals isn’t on the list.

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Under the Dome