RALEIGH – Gov. Roy Cooper announced a $130 million school safety proposal Thursday, a preview of the his full recommended budget to the General Assembly. While the proposal directs roughly half of the funds toward reinforcing schools for security, only 7.7 percent of the proposed funds would go toward hiring more School Resource Officers.
“”No educator should ever have to put him or herself between a student and a dangerous weapon. No parent should ever have to wonder whether their child is going to make it out alive,” Cooper said during a visit to Cedar Ridge High School in Hillsborough. “Brave students across North Carolina and across this country are making their voices heard. They want action. I do, too.”
Cooper’s proposal includes $65 million for safety upgrades to public schools and buildings on community college and university campuses, such as stronger doors, panic alarms and security monitoring. Another $40 million would fund 500 positions for school counselors, psychologists and nurses, while $10 million would pay for more school resource officers.”
The fact that funding School Resources Officers appears as an afterthought, not to mention the complete absence of training funds aimed at preparing, training, and possible arming personnel, is indicative of the Left’s irrational obsession with opposing guns.
Fortifying schools to some degree is necessary. Mental health issues are an obvious area of focus, but in the event that red flags are missed and an event is literally taking place – as has happened time and again – children deserve a chance to be actively defended.
Cooper is right, no educator should ever have to put themselves between a student and a gun. So why not fund and sponsor proposals to make sure they, or other trained personnel, can actually defend the children with more than their bodies.
The principle at Sandy Hook reportedly charged the shooter unarmed in a futile attempt to protect her kids. Why must the Left deny these personnel the ability to really protect the children?
Instead, they focus on partisan gun control measures that don’t work, and long term marginal solutions while ignoring immediate security solutions.
“Cooper has already called for tighter gun laws in North Carolina, such as raising the age to purchase assault-style rifles and requiring a background check for such purchases, similar to those sheriffs conduct for handgun purchases. Lawmakers haven’t yet addressed that issue.
“We cannot afford for Washington to act on school safety,” he said. “We need to keep guns out of the wrong hands and off of our school campuses, and we have to provide our schools the funding to help keep our kids safe.””
So put some guns in the right hands, and give our kids a fighting chance if another anomalous school shooting is underway.
The General Assembly, who will merely take Cooper’s budget suggestions under consideration as they craft a real budget, has been meeting on school safety issues and is likely to have a more common sense approach to the issue that includes a higher priority for providing armed security officers in schools.
Read more here.
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