The War On Drugs On Schools

NIXON'S the One, Reagan's the Beard:

Indiana could be first to require armed employee in every public school

This thing passed out of the Indiana House Education Committee almost before the NRA's armed press conference announcing the template was over.

“This is a common-sense approach to a horrible situation,” said Rep. Jim Lucas, a freshman Republican from Seymour who led the effort to add the protection-officer mandate to Senate Bill 1. 

An armed employee, he said, could have prevented the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Connecticut in December that killed 20 students and six adults.

And if pi was a rational number God would still be in His Heaven thanks to the Indiana General Assembly.

“Basically, these people were defenseless,” Lucas said. “We know for a fact that Sandy Hook, they did everything by the book. The school was locked down, the shooter came in, broke dozens of laws and shot his way into the school.”

Yeah, and Nidal Malik Hasan killed thirteen people at Ft. Fucking Hood, where they also do everything by the book and are armed to the gills. That Navy Seal-ish dude got gunned down at a gun range.

I'm married to a public school teacher. It ain't like we don't take school security seriously. It ain't like we don't bleed into our collective chest cavity here about all these little 2nd amendment displays.

It's not like, since she's an urban public school teacher, we aren't already familiar with putting armed law enforcement in the hallways.

Security is security. Danger is danger. Life is untidy, unwieldy, and often less than pleasant. And bullshit is bullshit. Especially when it's bullshit at the service of a well-oiled gun manufacturer's lobby, from its eager mouthpieces and willing sycophants, eager to insist that the obvious is not true.

Maybe this should be the big education issue in this country: the current idea that the soul of wisdom lies in not listening to anybody you don't already agree with.

I broke the news of the bill to my Poor Wife yesterday. Her response was immediate. "We have an armed guard now. He goes to the bathroom. He gets lunch. He patrols, or gets called, outside. He gets called to every disturbance. He files reports. He's got a handgun. There are three main entrances to the school. I could get the drop on him."

There is, for now, the ready estimate of "$10 million" to implement the law (in a state which happily cut 20% from its education budget a few years ago because Mitch Daniels is an entrepreneurial genius). It's almost assuredly low, almost assuredly bogus. And almost assuredly predicated on the idea these people have that there's always a willing weapons fancier ready and able to do the job, so we won't be spending money on salaries.  "Students, continue reading Chapter 7. I'll be back as soon as the shootin' stops."

Listen, I don't know about you, but I went to public schools, and there were teachers there I didn't think should be trusted with chalk. Or dodge balls. Particularly dodge balls. I had a science teacher once who was later fired for lifting a student off the ground by his neck. A move which he'd already gotten a reputation for. The guy was fully capable of winging somebody over an untucked shirttail. Come to think of it, he probably was better suited to Door Patrol than teaching. Provided you don't mind a little collateral damage.

Yeah, they did everything by the book at Newtown. Including leaving that woman alone to arm her crazy hothouse son like he was a forward observation post. Yes, a trained sniper aiming at the front door could'a brought Adam Lanza down, assuming he'd shot first, assuming Lanza didn't know to expect him. If you're absolutely serious about this (answer: you aren't), then put a SWAT team in every school in Indiana. Maybe they can help change test answers in their down time.

Which, oh, what th' fuck, Slate:

A March 29 grand jury indictment details the shockingly sick culture of adult cheating that existed within the Atlanta public schools under former superintendent Beverly Hall, who resigned in disgrace two years ago.

Shocking? Sick? What effing country do you hail from? If that's not a description of unfettered capitalism going back to the 14th amendment, you find me a better one. Atlanta's just the largest and most blatant example we know of. Unless you want to count Michelle Rhee, who was fortunate that her rabbi got tossed by the voters before she ended up in stir. In fact, the only shocking thing to me in all this is that Beverly Hall isn't running her own billion-dollar slush fund now, and advising Los Angeles schools on how to get in on the scam before the marks get wise.

A one-time “Superintendent of the Year” who earned $580,000 in performance bonuses, Hall...

Here's what's Sick, Ms Goldstein, though, unfortunately, it won't shock anyone. We just blithely assume that of course a professional educator, who had sought the superintendent's position for the Failing Atlanta Schools™ system, should pull down half a mil in "performance bonuses".  While her charges make do with whatever the taxpayers begrudge them this year. Of course she should pull down a few hundred thousand extra shekels because test scores improved miraculously. Not because anyone gives a shit about what inner-city children in Atlanta are being taught. Because she's a walking fucking advertisement for the people who want to dismantle public education just to scorch a union. Beverly Hall shouldn't by facing prison just for running a enormous scam on the willingly scammed. She should be facing hard time for selling out a sacred trust. If we ever decide to judge the sickness of that we'll be well on our way to understanding just how unshocking cheating and lying are out there in the Marketplace. And Slate will be out of, you should pardon the expression, business.

Really, is it possible this country has learned nothing whatsoever from the War on Drugs? It's just, like, a four-decade Iraq War?