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School Safety: Not rocket science

Enough!

I have had it with politicians pussyfooting around the fact that schools need greater safety measures.

This isn’t rocket science. Believe me, it isn’t.

While I vehemently oppose gun control or legislation that limits a citizen to exercise their second amendment right, I am certainly in favor of increasing safety measures in American schools.

On Wednesday, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey launched the Alabama Sentry Program, which will “permit administrators in schools, without an SRO, to maintain a firearm on campus in a secured safe in order to be prepared to respond to an active shooter situation.”

While I believe Gov. Ivey has made the right step in making Alabama schools safer, she, along with other politicians in Alabama, have a long way to go. I am definitely in favor of having armed resource officers on every school campus.

It’s time to institute common-sense safety measures in American schools.

I am in favor of having a one way in and one way out approach at each school. That’s something that could be accomplished at each school in Alabama in a week’s time. I am also in favor of having metal detectors at that one entrance.

Students could arrive to school in ten-minute intervals in the morning hours to limit overcrowding. If it means hiring a few people to assist in that measure each morning, so be it. If it prevents a mass school shooting, it will be worth it.

The only way to combat evil is by meeting it head-on. It is a sad reality, but a reality nonetheless.

Those that seek to cause mass chaos and terror will always find a way to do so, that is why we must make sure that our schools are secure and follow appropriate measure to prevent tragedy from occurring again.

With a society full of guns, people are bound to get shot. That’s something that everyone should easily understand.

If you are depending on the government to enact legislation focusing heavily on gun control, I feel sorry for you. Look at London, China, and Chicago. All of those are areas with extreme amounts of gun control, yet people are shot and killed there each day.

Wake up to reality and dig into your file named “common sense.” Once you get ahold of that, it is time for you to start pressing your state governments and insist that they do something to fix this horrific problem.

Standard walk through metal detectors cost around $2,500 each. When considering some of Alabama’s country schools, two, or maybe even one, walk through metal detector(s) would suffice.

Andrew Pollack, who lost his daughter, Meadow Pollack, in the Parkland, Florida shooting, has launched a campaign called #FixIt. The campaign focuses on enacting common sense safety measures in schools.

“If our leaders had fixed it, my daughter would still be alive,” said Pollack in a video promoting the newly popular campaign.

While what Gov. Ivey has done is a step in the right direction, there is still so much to do. I urge you to press your elected representatives and senators. We must end this once and for all.

America’s school children deserve to go to school unafraid and ready to learn. Let’s work to make their lives safer. It isn’t hard … I promise.

@RealKyleMorris is a Yellowhammer News contributor and host of The Weekend Briefing that airs noon-2 p.m. Saturdays on 101.1 WDYE

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