Come Thursday

By Seth Boyes - News Editor

Come Thursday, I'll be the parent of a public school student for the first time in my life.

The thing I was most worried about was the drop-off lane, but not anymore.

My decades-old frame of mind was bent and then completely broken Monday night by a 4-0 vote from the Spirit Lake School Board. But it just goes to show that times really are a-changin' and I'm not as young as I was.

Monday's vote from the school board was the first step in implementing and executing a new school policy that will allow certain selected staff members across the district — but specifically not teachers — to carry weapons while on school grounds. The idea being that those staff members can then deter a shooter or at least minimize the death toll if an individual decides to open fire at one of the school buildings.

Like I said, I can hardly get my head around it, because I have a vivid memory of my elementary school principal coming into our classroom and explaining how the school shootings that were happening around that time were affecting some things at school. Mr. Hanson explained that no one was going to be allowed to bring a gun of any kind to school, and we should report anyone who did. He went the extra mile and drove the point home by saying that even if we saw him put his hunting rifle in the trunk of his car in the parking lot, we should go to the school office and report him — our own principal — because no one was exempt from the rule.

The issue was pretty cut and dry back then — no guns at school at all.

But, as of Monday evening in Spirit Lake, the rule became a little less cut and dry. Now, not only will some people be allowed to carry guns in school, it's the school that's arraigning for those guns to be brought into the buildings.

Now, don't get me wrong. I fully recognize the school board believes this is the best and safest option available to them, and it's a decision they came to after in-depth discussion with local law enforcement.

I was in the board room.

I saw the emotion on their faces.

I know they realize the gravity of the decision, and they realize there's no gleaming perfect solution anymore when it comes to school safety.

And that's just it I think. None of this is their fault. But I do think it's ours.

For many of my generation, the 1999 shooting at Columbine High School was our first introduction to the grave reality of school shootings. But since that time, it seems that the continued expectation was that schools were responsible for keeping shooters from getting into a building, rather than the expectation that it was the society's responsibility to keep guns from getting into the hands of shooters.

And, as a result, school boards like ours are finding it necessary to anticipate who will be firing back at a shooter should the unthinkable finally happen.

That's what's frustrating to me. We as a society had decades to bolster proactive solutions to gun violence, but we didn't and now school boards are finding more and more that they're left with only reactive options.

These aren't the circumstances under which I had hoped I'd send my children into on their first day of school, but come Thursday, that's what I'll be doing — and for a great many days after that.

So, while I greatly appreciate all the time and thought the school district put into its decision this week, I'm disappointed we as a society couldn't — didn't — do more to keep them from being boxed into a proverbial corner.