WTVM Editorial 08/28/23: Never Enough Security

COLUMBUS, Ga. (WTVM) - Muscogee County School District’s decision to allow only the smallest bags into school stadiums was quickly overshadowed by the events of last Friday night - when mayhem broke out in the A.J. McClung Stadium parking lot during a football game.

Three kids were arrested, two were 15 and one 16 and three guns seized by police.

Inside the stadium, there was panic and now a multitude of questions need to be answered, such as how kids that young get guns; how involved their parents were; why there weren’t more highly visible police patrols...and we will work to get those answers.

But this is why we can never be too careful and why we must have the mindset of there can “never be enough security” to keep our schools and neighborhoods safe.

That new bag policy may seem trivial now, but every security measure adds up, and we need every single one we can get, to harden every school against evil.

Such as making sure there is only a single point of entry at every school.

After the 2018 Florida school shooting, the National Commission on School Safety strongly endorsed a single-entry point to limit school access.

More armed security at schools and events can also serve as a necessary deterrent.

Yet some teacher unions and others argue schools should not be prisons.

But just like a single-entry door, smart security measures are always about keeping bad people out and harm away from students, not keeping students locked inside.

Children are precious, more valuable than money or works of art or any number of things that we guard with more care than we do some schools.

We need to assure all our students that we intend to keep them as safe as possible.

Making all school properties a hardened target is essential to managing a problem that, sadly, is not going away.

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