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process, they have been given in America's founding documents. It's this show of democracy at the grass-roots level that America needs to see on other issues. It's a good model for us all.
• ___
• Aberdeen American News, Aberdeen, March 2, 2013
• Schools should not have armed sentinels
• The school sentinels bill that passed the South Dakota Senate recently, and will likely to be made into law, was a squandered opportunity to have a real conversation about students and safety.
• Instead, our legislators' first instinct to the issue of school violence was "add more guns." Their second thought was "it's not about guns; it's giving the option to school districts to have sentinels."
• That's a weak position given that the Legislature is meant to lead for the whole state, not just give permission to superintendents to lead themselves. But we assume their decision means lawmakers can check the "did something about it" box on school safety.
• So now, local school districts and communities will likely face the tough choice of adding an armed sentinel.
• It's our hope that school systems in Brown, Spink, Marshall, Day, McPherson, Edmunds, Faulk, Campbell, Walworth and Potter counties show more restraint and thought in preventing school violence.
• We hope they will spend their safety resources on something other than guns.
• When it comes to children, we all get protective. More than mall or movie theater shootings, the killing of 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., in December worried a nation, and everyone wanted to do something.
• What message would armed sentinels (secret sentinels, we remind you; the legislation as crafted means schools wouldn't need to reveal who is carrying the gun) send to children? That they should be afraid, that gun violence is an immediate threat.
• Gun violence is a threat, of course, but a highly unlikely one -- despite media reports.
• Much like tornado and fire drills, school security procedures and drills will be much more effective in keeping the most students safe.
• Adding more guns to the mix clouds the problem. Of the recent public mass shootings, how many killers were stopped by a "good guy with a gun" -- even in those situations where a trained, armed guard was present?

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