http://www.connectamarillo.com/news/story.aspx?id=856546

Dumas school officials have employed sworn police officers in their school district for the past 15 years. Has the presence of cops on campus deterred heinous acts of violence during that time? Maybe so.

For my money, that is a far better investment than arming teachers with Glocks and then asking them to protect students when trouble erupts.

This, too, might be an investment worth making in other school districts that have the resources to pay for it.

The Sandy Hook Elementary School tragedy in Newtown, Conn., late this past year has elevated public awareness of gun violence to new levels. The deaths of 20 students and six of their teachers at the hands of a madman should be cause for all kinds of serious discussion. And that discussion is under way.

Sadly, at least one goofy notion that has emerged has been to arm teachers. Let them put a gun in their desk drawer and when trouble breaks out, let them take down the bad guy with a single shot to the head.

That’s how it’s supposed to go … but my fear is that it wouldn’t happen quite that way. There’s the fear of stray bullets resulting in even more carnage.

Cities and counties too often lack the resources to deploy officers full time to school campuses. They, too, have many other constituents to protect.

That leaves school districts to create and staff their police departments, such as Dumas Independent School District has done.

I have just one caveat: that the officers are as well-trained as their law enforcement colleagues and that school districts wouldn’t settle for officers who couldn’t cut it in other departments. The lives of our children and those who teach them demand only the best protection possible.