Classroom cops not the answer

Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones, who has been nurturing a reputation as the toughest sheriff on illegal immigration north of the Rio Grande, now proposes a way to keep maniacs from unleashing mayhem on college campuses.

In a letter to Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, Thursday, Sheriff Jones proposed a “mandatory armed law enforcement presence at all schools.”

The sheriff notes in a Friday story by reporter Jon Craig that his proposal “will not come without a price tag.”

I’ll say.

According to the Ohio Department of Education Web site, there are 3,623 public schools and at least 877 non-public schools in the state of Ohio. That’s 4,500 separate schools. If you were to put just one armed police officer in each of those buildings, you would need a force roughly four and a half times the size of the Cincinnati Police Department. And that doesn’t count colleges and universities.

State Rep. Courtney Combs, R-Fairfield, said in the story he will consider sponsoring legislation to train teachers to carry guns, who Jones suggested could then be “deputized” to protect the kids in the classrooms.

“It needs to be debated,” Combs said in the story.

No it doesn’t.

In the wake of the Virginia Tech shootings we all want to find some way to keep it from happening again. It is every parent’s nightmare to learn that you have sent a child off to someplace you think is safe, only to learn that the unthinkable has happened. We all want to protect our children. I don’t blame Jones or Combs for suggesting putting cops in every classroom or arming teachers – but that isn’t the way.

It should be remembered that Virginia Tech had its own police department. Several officers already were on the scene of the initial shooting in a dormitory when the second, more extensive incident took play across campus in another building.

No police officer, or group of police officers, could possibly cover every possible location where a shooting might occur. Police are reactive – they are called after the crime has occurred. The way to address keeping another Virginia Tech from happening is to be pro-active; to recognize the danger of a ticking bomb like Cho Seung-Hui and try to defuse it before it goes off.