The bottom line

Former teacher speaks

— Every so often I receive a message from a valued reader that resonates with my thoughts and feelings on an issue.

It happened again the other day with an intelligent and insightful letter from a former teacher of 38 years named Karen Littrell of Little Rock.

With that in mind, I decided to share her views of the Newtown, Conn., school mass shooting.

Incidentally, I agree with virtually everything this veteran of public schools has to offer, with the possible exception of training and safely arming responsible personnel in our schools who can have an effective way of protecting innocent and exposed young lives.

Notifying authorities after the fact hasn’t and won’t prevent these tragedies.

Anyway, here’s what Mrs. Littrell had to share:

“Dear Mr. Masterson—Rarely do I feel compelled to respond to what I read in the newspaper, but I would like to thank you for the very thoughtful piece you wrote, ‘Too complex for easy answer.’

“You raised several issues regarding the tragedy in Newtown, Conn., that need to be addressed, and most of them are issues my husband and I have discussed over the last few days.

“I am a retired teacher (38 years as a secondary school teacher) and my husband drove a school bus during the nine years prior to his retirement. So we are both extremely familiar with all the safeguards that were put in place in schools following the Columbine [High School] shootings.

“In fact, we were in the Colorado public education system during 2001-2009. Colorado immediately mandated numerous policies to ensure the safety of students in its schools and on its buses.

“I believe we can all recognize that if a deranged individual intends to do harm in a school setting, he will find a way to enter the school and do so. And the harm he can do can be done within minutes and before first responders can put an end to it.

“I do not believe the answer is to allow teachers and public school employees to carry guns. That is foolish.

“First, the gun would have to be stored in a place where students could not possibly have access to it. (We all have heard stories of teachers’ gradebooks and purses being stolen.)

“The very fact that the gun would be inaccessible would make it difficult for the teacher to get to it in an emergency.

“I never took anything to the schools where I taught that I did not want taken by a student, and my very real fear is that if we put guns in the hands of teachers, we would then be reading about students who took those guns and used them in the school.

“Regarding your piece on the Newtown shootings, the shooter’s mother used extremely poor judgment in teaching her unbalanced son how to use the guns she purchased. She knew of his antisocial behaviors and apparently did not secure the weapons properly.

“I don’t know what her line of thinking was, and her poor parenting skills resulted not only in her death, but the deaths of 26 innocent people.

“I also agree with your comments regarding the proliferation of violent video games as a contributing factor. There is no doubt these games can have an effect on the person who is totally immersed in them.

“But the games in and of themselves are not the problem.

“I believe the problem is when a mentally unbalanced person becomes even more desensitized when he plays the games.

“In my years of teaching, I did have students in my class who had been diagnosed with mental illnesses of one kind or another. One, a 13-year-old in the eighth grade, was diagnosed as ‘depressed, suicidal and homicidal,’ and I was instructed to ‘keep an eye on him and report any problems immediately to the counselor.’

“I always wondered why this child wasn’t hospitalized and treated for his mental illness and whatever happened to him. He now would be in his mid-20s.

“The bottom line is that I don’t believe we are appropriately dealing with the mental health of our young people.

“Guns and video games are not the problem. The problem is our society’s inattention to the mental health of our young people.

“When you have a mentally unstable person playing desensitizing video games and giving them access to guns, then you are asking for disaster.

“Again, thank you for your thoughtful commentary and welcome to the world of Social Security.”

Thanks, and Merry Christmas, Karen.

I’m mighty pleased to join you and the millions like us in being reimbursed our very own hard-earned monies we’ve been paying into the socalled trust fund for decades.

—–––––

Mike Masterson’s column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him at mikemasterson10@hotmail.com. Read his blog at mikemastersonsmessenger.com.

Editorial, Pages 79 on 12/23/2012

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