South Dakota to allow armed teachers in schools


The US state of South Dakota has enacted a law allowing school districts to arm teachers and other school staff.

The law's backers say it will prevent mass school shootings like a December massacre in Connecticut that killed 26.

Amid a push by the White House to strengthen gun laws, the bill reflects a growing divide in the US over whether more or fewer guns keep people safe.

The measure does not force school districts to arm teachers and will not require teachers to carry guns.

But it allows each school district to choose if staff could be armed. It takes effect in July.

Under the Republican-sponsored bill, school staff given permission to carry firearms on campus will be known as "school sentinels". The state has given a law enforcement commission the task of establishing a training programme for the sentinels.

Several representatives of school boards, teachers and other staff spoke against the bill in legislative hearings, arguing guns would make schools more dangerous.

But sponsor Representative Scott Craig said this week had heard from a number of school officials who back it.

Mr Craig said rural districts do not have the money to hire full-time police officers.

http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-21722377

Don't think any kid will ever forget to do his/her homeworks...


My humble opinion

The world is going crazy, so teachers would now have to protect their selves form the students they are teaching.

This is a head-scratcher. How can the solution to violence be to introduce more guns?

They are arming teachers to protect themselves & students. Okay.

Who is going to protect the students when one of the teachers suffers a mental breakdown and turns the gun on his co-workers & students?

@JeSoul,

This is a head-scratcher. How can the solution to violence be to introduce more guns?

What then is the solution to an active shooter? A tele-prompter aided speech?

They are arming teachers to protect themselves & students. Okay.

Now you get it. It's all about empowerment to protect yourself and others. Police never arrive at a shooting scene until the deed is done. Perhaps this would give potential victims a chance to defend themselves, right?

Who is going to protect the students when one of the teachers suffers a mental breakdown and turns the gun on his co-workers & students?

How many times have you heard that a law-abiding citizen with a licensed gun ever turned the gun on others? The problem has always been those who obtain the guns illegally and have some mental breakdown. Current laws ensure that only those who are mentally fit would have a gun license. That won't change in this case.

Tayo-D:
@JeSoul,
What then is the solution to an active shooter? A tele-prompter aided speech?

Lol. Of course the solution to an "active shooter" is to shoot him down - but that is not what we're doing here - yet.

Now you get it. It's all about empowerment to protect yourself and others. Police never arrive at a shooting scene until the deed is done. Perhaps this would give potential victims a chance to defend themselves, right?
How many times have you heard that a law-abiding citizen with a licensed gun ever turned the gun on others? The problem has always been those who obtain the guns illegally and have some mental breakdown. Current laws ensure that only those who are mentally fit would have a gun license. That won't change in this case.

I don't disagree that gun-crimes from law-abiding citizens are statistically very small compared to the overall gun problem.

My problem is saturating what should be a safe place of learning, a school with armed teachers. I'm sorry. I don't see the sense in providing more guns and thereby more opportunities for something to go wrong - either from the teacher turning the gun on fellow teachers/students or accidental deaths or in the bid to respond to a situation, the teacher shoots a bystander.

What schools should be doing is stopping guns from getting in the first place. Providing better security and lockdown measures to minimize casualties in the case of a rare event like Newtown.

The reaction to such a rare happening shouldn't be to immediately put more guns into schools - thereby opening the door for more gun violence.


If you're talking about people at home, protecting themselves then power to you. But I don't think guns belong in schools - unless it is on the belt of a law enforcement officer providing security and certainly not in the hands of a teacher.

there already states that allow lawful ccw on school premises and no teacher has shot a student out of frustration, shot another teacher arguing over snacks in the break room or shot up the entire school out of anger. lol.

neither have there been students negatively affected by the knowledge that the some of the staff may be armed. while it may seem unnecessary, its hardly saturating the school with guns, its simply allowing any employee who has ccw permit, to take their weapons to the work. it is not significantly different than having police or armed private security. there are not enough police to go round and some schools don't have the resources to hire private security.

montelik: there already states that allow lawful ccw on school premises and no teacher has shot a student out of frustration, shot another teacher arguing over snacks in the break room or shot up the entire school out of anger. lol.

Yet.
Same way no one had shot up a movie theater until the joker did. And Newtown was also a very rare occurence statistically.

neither have there been students negatively affected by the knowledge that the some of the staff may be armed.

Not sure how you reached this conclusion or how it relates in this instance... what or how is a 3yr old pre-schooler going to show she's been "negative affected" by something she may not be aware of? since its a concealed weapon abi?

while it may seem unnecessary, its hardly saturating the school with guns, its simply allowing any employee who has ccw permit, to take their weapons to the work. it is not significantly different than having police or armed private security. there are not enough police to go round and some schools don't have the resources to hire private security.

I would argue that it is. A law enforcement officer is trained in a 1000 more ways than someone with a simple gun permit. I would not send my child to a school that has armed classroom teachers - this has all the makings of a tragedy waiting to happen.

See what this world has done to us - to now think that guns belong in classrooms? I understand there aren't enough police or private security to properly secure all schools - BUT this is a gross over-reaction to a relatively rare occurence.

I dont get this crap... How is this going to solve the menace?!
It is going to get out of hand now ... teachers firing off from one angle and a deranged student firing off from another angle, more innocent people are going to get caught up in the melee ... Insane!