Guns, banned books, locked doors

There is a bill in Ohio to arm teachers.

Good god.

I think of going to school in the 50s and 60s. I can't imagine Mrs. Beaton, who taught my mother and uncle, packing a pistol. She was too busy making sure we learned as much as possible.

What about my favorite high school English teacher, Mr. D'Orlando? He was in a fight but with the powers that we be allowed to read Othello. He lost. Our 17 year old minds were too delicate to read the words of a 16th century writer who brought in a  dark-skinned main character into a white world. I can't picture him with gun on his hip.

 

That is nothing compared to the book banning of today. Teachers can't decide what books kids can read. We can't let the teachers arm students with knowledge, but can arm them with guns.

Which guns?

 

A hand gun? Must it be kept loaded all the time? Worn in holster? Locked in a desk drawer so a kid can't get his hands on it and kill someone deliberately or by accident? Must it be left loaded or unloaded while waiting for another killer to come.

If it's a handgun locked in a drawer, the door opens, and a shooter sprays the classroom with bullets from an AR-15, would the teacher ask him to wait a minute while she unlocks the drawer, take out the gun, load it if not loaded and shoot before s/he too is mowed down?

What if the teacher, pushed to his/her limit, frustrated with low pay, too many students, has a mental breakdown and uses the gun in the classroom against an offending student(s)? Or decides the kids need a lesson in suicide?

Must the teacher buy his or her own gun? Many are already buying their own supplies? If there's money for guns, will there be less money for crayons?

And of course there's Ted Cruz who wants only one locked door in a school. I can see the headline: "Kids die in School Fire" The opening paragraph could read, "150 elementary school students burned to death because the only exit was locked."

How insane is the U.S. alleged leadership?