I’m a former teacher who has taught various age groups, including adults. One time there was a security risk and we were put on “lockdown.” A criminal had taken a deputy hostage nowhere near our school. At the time, I was teaching English as a second language to adults and they all came to school in cars. They could all leave the same way. Instead, they were LOCKED in a “portable” a euphemism for a giant tin box for hours.

All I kept thinking was , what if this was a psychopath whose intent was to murder a classroom of children? This was my introduction the school security plan of Broward County. Florida.

After the mass murder in Connecticut the school board tried to come up with a new plan. The school superintendent, recently hired from Chicago, had just allocated $500,000 for GPS for school buses and refused to move that money to any security plan. You know, its the Chicago way,: he must have owed someone.

I have a cheaper and simpler plan for our brilliant School Board members. Have teachers volunteer to carry weapons and be responsible for their school hallway. In addition, all administrative personnel should be trained to carry a weapon. The teachers could be paid s little bit extra, like a department head does. Not administration. Instead, we have signs outside every school that it is a ” gun-free zone.”

The ” lockdown” happened to adults who came to this country for various reasons, but it was embarrassing that this was the best plan our ” elite” Board could come up with. We were lucky because the siege ended and nobody was hurt, but the problem has not been solved.