Armed deputies will now guard some local schools
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BOTHELL, Wash. -- A special unit of armed deputies will now patrol many Snohomish County schools as part of a dramatic new effort to increase school security.
The Sandy Hook massacre in Connecticut was a sickening reminder of just how vulnerable schools can be, and it was also a wake-up call for one local sheriff.
"It impacted me more than anything in my 43 years of public service," said Snohomish County Sheriff John Lovick.
Lovick is now launching a special unit of deputies to protect schools.
"For these kids, they should come to the school and realize these officers are there. They are simply the good guys, they are their friends," Lovick said.
Lovick kicked off the new School Services Unit at Woodside Elementary near Bothell. The unit will have five armed deputes patrolling more than 100 public and private school in unincorporated parts of the county and be paid for by the Snohomish County sheriff's office.
Local parents say having armed deputies at school is a bold movie.
"I think they definitely feel more comfortable to have the presence of the sheriff and the deputy around," said parent Joy Caldwell.
The principal at Woodside said school workers will explain to the kids why deputies are in the school.
"Well, it's just another leader in the community that's here to make sure that things are safe and to be a helper and to be a mentor," said principal Betty Cobbs.
In the end, many parents say anything that can keep another Sandy Hook-type massacre from happening is a good thing.
"That guy broke through a window, but if there is a deputy here he might be able to have a gun and shoot somebody," one parent said.
Lovick said not all schools will have an armed deputy all day, but he hopes the unit sends a strong message that the schools are well protected.
The Sandy Hook massacre in Connecticut was a sickening reminder of just how vulnerable schools can be, and it was also a wake-up call for one local sheriff.
"It impacted me more than anything in my 43 years of public service," said Snohomish County Sheriff John Lovick.
Lovick is now launching a special unit of deputies to protect schools.
"For these kids, they should come to the school and realize these officers are there. They are simply the good guys, they are their friends," Lovick said.
Lovick kicked off the new School Services Unit at Woodside Elementary near Bothell. The unit will have five armed deputes patrolling more than 100 public and private school in unincorporated parts of the county and be paid for by the Snohomish County sheriff's office.
Local parents say having armed deputies at school is a bold movie.
"I think they definitely feel more comfortable to have the presence of the sheriff and the deputy around," said parent Joy Caldwell.
The principal at Woodside said school workers will explain to the kids why deputies are in the school.
"Well, it's just another leader in the community that's here to make sure that things are safe and to be a helper and to be a mentor," said principal Betty Cobbs.
In the end, many parents say anything that can keep another Sandy Hook-type massacre from happening is a good thing.
"That guy broke through a window, but if there is a deputy here he might be able to have a gun and shoot somebody," one parent said.
Lovick said not all schools will have an armed deputy all day, but he hopes the unit sends a strong message that the schools are well protected.
More than likely, we will have drones for this job soon enough and these guys can go back to whatever it was they were doing (like studying that doughnut on it's approach to the lips).
@Elvis Oh, SURE! Predators with Hellfire missiles... if some nut starts shooting up a school, we can just eradicate the whole place - faculty, administrators, staff and student body, and even a visiting parent or two - in one huge blaze of glory! </sarchasm> (Well, not really as sarcastic as what I am responding to maybe...)
Much of this starts at home, while this gesture may be noble, it is too little to late. There are more than enough kids and adults that have no respect or boundaries. At some point, we'll hear about someone attacking LEO at a school if it hasn't occurred already.
@Pollywannacracker "too little too late" ... Translation: well, it's broken and I don't know how to fix it cheaply... so let's not even try. ...besides, I wouldn't want to miss the game on television this afternoon.
It simply boggles my mind when I hear people saying there isn't enough money to afford to pay a police officer to walk security in our schools. Whats important? I will gladly pay a tiny sum of my money to know there is at least a SMALL chance that a police/security presence is in place to at least deter wrong doing at my sons school. Get your priorities straight people, would you really rather say its too expensive and then hear about yet another school shooting? I know its not perfect, nothing will ever be when it comes to it, but it is preventative if nothing else. I think the last thing any murderer/shooter wants is a person capable of stopping them. Look at how many of them shoot themselves the moment the police show up. It just pisses me off when I hear people say it will cost too much, they must not have children of their own to make such a callous statement. People say the police cannot be everywhere at once, well no crap. They WILL at least be nearer at hand, the children of today will adapt to seeing police, we see them everywhere anyway. They will be near enough to at least deter or bring a stop to a shooters rampage that much sooner, thereby preventing more deaths that would otherwise happen since the shooter would be less inclined to stop.
My High School was completely fenced in 12-14 feet high and had 4 full-time school police 25 years ago. I didn't suffer any ill conse BIG DOGS LANDING ON MY FACE! quences.
@slappywag Are you from Chehalis theirs a place like that just off I- 5. Had to say that. lol
@Mike @slappywag Or Buckley! Wasn't there a place there that matched that description? </sarchasm>
This country is in sad shape any way you look at it. It's beginning to look more like a "police state" all the time. These knee jerk solutions to our problems really makes one wonder where all of this is going to end. Certainly not in any kind of a democracy.
@Jatok Sadly it is a reaction to all the people who allow their kids to run wild. Cause and effect; To ever action, there is always and equal and opposite reaction.
Armed guards are worse than nothing at all, just a fake sense of security. Â First off we are already in debt to our eyeballs and now the state has spent money on illegal alien financial aid. We can't afford to hire guards for children of regular citizens.Â
Arming and training teachers is the way to go. Â It doesn't cost extra beyond the weapon and training. Teachers and staff armed throughout a school will be tactically better than some guards which can't run from one side of the school to the other faster than a speeding bullet.Â
@NW-Economist I actually have mixed feelings about this. I'm ok with armed guards but its armed teachers that bother me. If they are trained and capable I'm ok with that but after considering the majority of teachers that I know I wouldn't want them near my kids let alone near kids while armed. So if there is a means to ensure that only capable teachers are armed then I'm ok with that. Otherwise, given the incredibly low chance of there being an event I'd say forget it. Whats really lame is people are talking of banning a variety of weapons that are responsible for very little crime. But then again we know that the anti-gunners were just waiting for something that would get everyone all emotionally fired up and they would go for their agenda driven bills in congress. The bodies weren't even cold in CT when the anti-gunners started dancing in their offices knowing that they could finally push a gun grab bill.  We have a country with a lot of problems that are far more important and we are wasting a huge amount of time and effort on a bunch of ideas that will do little or nothing.Â
@SeattleJoe @NW-Economist I agree with your first two sentences, Joe (surprise! surprise!) but I think is was the PRO-gun people who really started doing their potty dance as soon as they heard about Sandy Hook.
@SeattleJoe @JLS1950 @NW-Economist Reactionary? No KIDDING!!! Reminds me of Isaiah 65:24: "Before they attack, we will react and counter!" Explains a lot of trigger-happy...
@JLS1950 @SeattleJoe @NW-Economist Pro gun people tend to not say anything unless situations like this come about. They tend to be very reactionary in nature but when attacked they react quite resoundingly.
Sends the wrong message to the kids, helps keep the fear level up. I would much prefer individual school districts would have a volunteer program where teachers or school administrators receive proper training in firearms and are given aptitude tests and then allowed to have concealed weapons if they chose too. Keep it secret from the kids. There's no reason for them to know about it.Â
@Blindman "Keep it secret from the kids. There's no reason for them to know about it."
Were you born yesterday or something??? Never went to school - public or private??? I guess you never had a bully wannabe-cop sixth grade teacher who proudly kept a whole collection of oft-used paddles displayed in an open closet in his classroom - which even other teachers referred to in awe. Or a fifth-grade teacher who borrowed and applied one of same simply because after sitting in his classroom after school for days without further help you STILL could not understand the writing assignment he had written in some code on the blackboard. Or a middle school math teacher whose response to a student whispering to her neighbor was to throw a piece of chalk, striking the offending girl square in the eye. Or the middle school wood shop teacher who cautioned his classes that he would physically deck any student who dared say anything inappropriate about stewardesses (his wife being one.) Or the middle-aged high school advanced math teacher who invited pretty girl students to be his teacher's assistants and then sat with them at his desk, feeling them up in the knee hole behind the "modesty panel" in front of a classroom of mostly boys working on their assignments.Â
If you want to arm teachers with handguns and you expect them to keep such "secret" and not abuse the weapons to threaten or coerce their students, you are a complete idiot as well as being merely blind!!!
@Blindman I disagree with this, I think it builds positive relationships that will benefit the kids in later years. You should not fear your local law enforcement. I think having the police presence can help with that if it is done correctly. My nieces and nephews like the police at their school, not for their safety reasons but because they never really saw them as people before, just badges. Now they have the opportunity to learn about law enforcement in a non-threatening environment. While I do disagree with the reason for this, I dont disagree with the likely positive influence on the kids. It really can be a positive thing if it is done right.
@Susabelle ...a voice of reason and penetrating insight!
@Blindman Until your school districts can come up any touchy feely program this can work.There are police walking around half schools in the city/state. Kids should learn to respect the uniform instead of flip pen it off.
That's ridiculous. Â We don't need armed guards or cops at our schools. Kids are more likely to be hit by a car on their skateboard, or fall of their bike and die from a head injury, but the majority of parents here don't force them to wear helmets. Â Sad day when you have armed guards at schools... we're becoming a paranoid and armed society because of the media hyperbole. Yes, the Sandy Hook shooting was horrific. But it could have happened anywhere. More guns and kids growing up feeling unsafe is not the answer. Frankly, armed police and guards actually makes them feel LESS safe. Â Buying into the hysteria, eh? Â I would put that extra money into meth control and education, because it's much more likely that the students in that County will die from doing meth, or from crossing paths with someone who does.Â
@DTÂ "Frankly, armed police and guards actually makes them feel LESS safe." Just how many kids have you talked to that have armed police in their schools? My nieces and nephews do, and they barely notice them most of the time and when they talk to them it actually helps build a relationship with local law enforcement that will go a long ways to increase their future relations with the law. The police at their school work with the kids, they are just one more positive role model. They are a figure of authority that they can trust. When my children were small, I taught them if they ever got lost, to find a policeman to help, didnt you? That is why we have police, to help "serve and protect" That doesnt just mean shooting bad guys.Â
On the other hand, the likelihood of something like this happening in our schools is very low. I will agree with that. You are correct that a child is more likely to be harmed in a multitude of other ways not having anything to do with guns, however, with your statement I am really curious as to your real objection? I am also of the opinion that having gun free zones is useless and actually decreases public safety. I understand your fear of guns, I get it. I however was raised with guns, taught to respect them and my children were as well.Â
@DTÂ Much sadder day yet if we allow bully teachers to carry heat.
@JLS1950 @DT Bully Teachers Oh My God !
@Mike @JLS1950 @DT Sheltered life, eh?
My only issue with the use of armed police en lieu of simply removing gun free zones and allowing school employees to arm themselves:
Warren v. District of Columbia[1] (444 A.2d. 1, D.C. Ct. of Ap. 1981) is an oft-quoted[2] District of Columbia Court of Appeals (equivalent to a state supreme court) case that held police do not have a duty to provide police services to individuals, even if a dispatcher promises help to be on the way, except when police develop a special duty to particular individuals.
@burton In the case cited, "the court decided that Warren was not entitled to remedy at the bar despite the demonstrable abuse and ineptitude on the part of the police because no special relationship existed. The court stated that official police personnel and the government employing them owe no duty to victims of criminal acts and thus are not liable for a failure to provide adequate police protection unless a special relationship exists."
Note that when police are assigned to a school for purposes of security, a "special relationship" does in fact exist, and gross negligence by police will come under much greater scrutiny. But also please note that MUCH has changed in this arena since 1975!!!Â
Colorado legislatures passed both a universal background check bill as well as a 15 bullet magazine limit bill this week. Their governor said he'll sign both into law. Where are the media on that?
@lakeview I have been on the phone the last two day's the bills the Colorado legislature have passed will be up for vote to the voters this fall. Skiing and hunting is a large part of the tourism in Colorado. This shows what happens with an out of control legislature.There was more to the bill then background check and magazine.
This country is becoming more insane every dayÂ
Our society and culture are thoroughly broken but it didn't happen overnight. It's taken decades of apathy and pathos.
@PilonidalCyst Really? Because crime was MUCH higher 10 years ago, and I don't remember people wailing about how our society is destroyed.  It's media hype and a mindset that they've curated among the weak.  Paranoia sells.Â
@DT @PilonidalCyst You know what is really funny about your comment here? The NRA has been saying the same thing... Paranoia and hyperbole when the reality is that crime, including gun crime is on its way down.Â
There really has been a lot of apathy over the years by the American people. As the government has become more and more involved in the personal and private lives of Americans most of the population has sat by as long as it didn't directly affect their day to day of things. This isn't just about crime, but it also entails many personal freedoms we have lost over the past 20 years.
Really. Such an expert you think you are on everything. How nice!
@Jatok Apparently you are incapable of reading English.
Apparently you are one of those who believes it should be 100% government control over everything. I stand by my post.
@Jatok Well, I go back a bit more than 20 years, and I remember the "personal freedom" to call someone a "communist" and thereby deny them employment in any industry - public or private. I remember the "personal freedom" of my government inviting me and my friends to go fight a war in a distant land where if the enemy fired upon you from inside a rubber tree grove, you could not fire back into the "no-fire zone" lest you damage the valuable rubber trees - but you could take villagers up in a helicopter for "interrogation" and throw them out at 2,000 feet if they had nothing of value to share. I remember the "personal freedom" to carry an anti-war protest sign and have it taken away by a police officer and used to beat you and your friends over the head. I remember of the "personal freedom" of my high school math teacher to feel up the cute blonde Senior he employed as a "teacher's assistant" under his desk in front of the class. I remember the "personal freedom" of gangs of middle school classmates to accost and beat up whomever they pleased after school. I remember the "personal freedom" of a neighbor girl's father lying on his couch at home, dying of lung cancer from cigarette smoking, while all his young daughter's young friends filed solemnly through to say goodbye to a man they hardly knew. I remember the "personal freedom" of classmates dying in cars without seat belts and the "personal freedom" of girls dying from unlawful septic abortions.
You may be quite correct that government has become rather too intrusive, but I think you have much rosier "memories" of the past than I frankly do.
I personally think this is a token gesture, although a good one. What concerns me, is that now, some whackjob out there feels that he's been offered a challenge. Shoot up a school with a cop stationed in it, and then what, full barbed wire perimeter fences and guard towers? I think letting teachers concealed carry is a much better, and safer option. If the crazies out there know that teachers are allowed to carry guns, they'll be a lot less inclined to pick a school as a target for thier twisted statement. Putting a cop out front is just giving him a target to take out first.
Cops "reacting" as soon as they can to incidents will possibly help, but the basic need is locked door going into schools.
Security 101
@hardtowatchitfade the shooter at sandy hook shot out a glass window and walked right in.  What we need is to stop the culture of violence in America in "entertainment" and media, and stop cutting all the mental health and school counselor budgets in favor billionaires like the Walmart Heirs.Â
DT - that is the most absurd thing I have heard. I have never read such nonsense. Reports said he was allowed in as staff knew who he was. If he had "shot out a window to gain access" There would have been time for alert. Where the heck do you get your news, Mad Magazine or CNN?
@Magicalwoman Lanza shot out a glass panel on a locked door to gain access by pulling on the panic-bar latch. He was not let in by staff. It is you who have failed to read the actual reports. As CBSNews put it:
"The first police officer on the scene was confronted by the glass window that Lanza had shot his way through to get past the locked door..."
ABCNews puts it thus:
"Dressed in black combat gear, he broke a window at the school, which had recently had a new security system installed..."
Michigan's Mlive adds:
"Authorities said they found multiple 30-round magazines and hundreds of bullets at the school, enough ammunition on him to carry out significant additional carnage."
locked doors dont stop guns, cops can stop people with guns and so can armed trained teachers!
"That guy broke through a window, but if there is a deputy here he might be able to have a gun and shoot somebody," one parent said.
I am not sure who the parent was that said the above quote, notice KOMO didn't mention it....Do ya wonder why? As citizens we wonder what is happening to education? Children learn what they live. The children in this household should count on taking quite a few English classes.
5 cops....over 100 schools. That will really help..not.
@James127Â In fact it will. Its known as the "halo" effect. By having cops come and go at random times it makes it so the crazy people know that they are around and can be there at unpredictable times thus causing people to alter their behavior. They use it in the highway patrol a lot. They put units out in force in an area and make their presence known. It causes people to slow down for a larger area than just where the units are. So the big question is how much will this help? For those schools it may help quite a bit but since its not universal anyone wanting to do something stupid will simply find a school where there are no guards. Its why gun free zones are incredibly stupid. It nearly guarantees a place to go do something stupid unimpeded.
@SeattleJoe You and I have duked it out rather a bit before (via keyboard, that is) but I have to say that you are SPOT-ON here, buddy - at least up to the last sentence. But arming teachers and school administrators is a bit like arming the trustee inmates on an Alabama road gang - IMHO.
The thing that makes "an armed society a polite society" is that violent criminals and psychopaths don't know whether or not the law-abiding person next to them is armed or not.  When you set aside specific areas and buildings such as schools as "gun free zones" and fill them with our most tender and vulnerable, the only thing you're accomplishing is in creating "free fire zones" for deranged lunatics and craven, violent lowlifes who will intentionally seek these places out, which is precisely what we have seen in so many cases.  This basic bit of obvious logic is one of many that has escaped the reality-starved  academics who support these "gun free zone" shooting galleries, and I'm delighted that a bit of common sense has finally worked its way into the schools, although it's unforgivable that so many innocent children have had to die in terror before this has been allowed to happen. Â
@Stoat BS.  an armed society is a violent and  paranoid society. Japan is a very polite society. As is sweden, canada, finland, etc. etc. etc.  Stop with the NRA fantasies...
@DT @Stoat Japan is actually a very armed society. Their politeness is cultural and unrelated to weapons. If anyone needs to ditch their fantasy it would be you.
@SeattleJoe @DT @Stoat "Armed" with WHAT? It is generally illegal to own either a firearm or a sword! I suppose you could aver that they have a lot of Toyotas that can be used to run someone down...?
Japan has one of the lowest firearm homicide rates in the world.
@DTÂ @Stoat We could learn a LOT from the schools in Finland.
Gun advocates' arguments that they "NEED" their guns is often the clearest evidence that an armed populace really is a huge threat and cause of violence in our society - especially when insecure and fearful people go armed in public at "social" events. Seems like the old horse operas used to remind us that wherever people gather together carrying firearms, violence just always seems to break out somehow.
@DT @Stoat you really need to do better research DT, Go take another look at Sweden sweetie...LOL They are darn near REQUIRED to be armed!!! LOL Almost every household there IS armed!
@DTÂ @Stoat The government needs to give a weekly supply of free pot to keep the country in check and more controllable that might work. lol