Political Correctness puts Connecticut Children at Risk

Public policies matter.  There is a real cost when public officials get it wrong.  Sometimes the price is paid with our children’s blood.  Politicians say that young lives matter.  Talk is cheap, particularly a politician’s promise.  In fact, the pensions of unionized government employees matter.  Political correctness leaves our children at risk.  Sadly, politics kills.

This is how we paid the price for bad policies.  Four years ago, a mass murderer at Sandy Hook Elementary School killed 26 people.  Some of the first victims were the school principal and guidance counselor who were shot and killed as they charged the murderer with their bare hands.  Connecticut state legislators and the local school boards made sure these defenders were unarmed.  Today, Connecticut politicians say that young lives matter, but actions speak louder than words.  In fact, the pensions of unionized government employees take priority in local budgets.  The Bridgeport, Connecticut School Board stopped paying for armed school safety officers.  That is only half the story.

Politicians protect their children with armed guards and trained EMTs, but not our children.  It simply costs too much money to protect our children from harm while the politicians have other promises to keep.  Our children are politically expendable.  They needn’t be.

We need to put risks into context to make good decisions.  It is unlikely that our local school will be attacked.  Rather than fill the school with armed police, some states chose to let teachers fill the shoes of first responders.  That is a good choice because trained school staff have an invaluable advantage in an emergency.  Time is everything in an emergency.  Seconds count in the race to save lives, and other first responders are many minutes away from campus.  School staff can respond in seconds.  School staff are really the preferred responders once you sweep political correctness aside.  Not in Connecticut.

Other states made different political decisions.  They sent school staff who already have their concealed carry permits to take additional training.  The teachers received additional firearms instruction and training in emergency trauma care.  These first responders learned to end the physical threat so they could treat the injured and save lives.  Today, these teachers go about their everyday jobs as they carry firearms and medical supplies on school grounds.  Not in Connecticut.

Connecticut school boards are empowered to make that choice as well, but they didn’t.  The school board in Sandy Hook, Connecticut could have made that choice before the mass murder four years ago.  Connecticut school boards could have made that decision yesterday.  Instead, the Bridgeport School board left our children unprotected.  Money talks, so let’s hear what budgets have to say.

Connecticut is a high tax state.  In theory, those tax funded government benefits are so valuable that people rush to live in Connecticut.  That is the theory.  That isn’t true in practice.  In practice, politicians use tax money to pay off their political contributors.  In practice, we make better choices with our money than politicians make with our tax money.  Highly taxed and highly regulated Connecticut is losing companies, losing jobs and losing people.  In 2012, Connecticut literally lost some young people as they were killed in an undefended public school.  Law enforcement and school boards put armed police in schools immediately after the Sandy Hook attack.  Now, with the Obama economy layering job losses on top of Connecticut regulations, there isn’t enough money budgeted to pay for armed school safety officers.  The Bridgeport School Board said the police department could fund armed school safety officers, but they wouldn’t.  School safety isn’t a political priority.

There are alternatives, but not for Connecticut politicians.  Political correctness stops armed adults from protecting Connecticut children.  It is a matter of time until politics kills again.  It doesn’t have to be that way, but, sadly, doing the same thing time after time will deliver the same result.

Connecticut citizens can change their politicians and their school boards.  If that doesn’t work, Connecticut citizens can move their children to the private schools that take safety seriously.   Connecticut families can join thousands of others and leave Connecticut for a better place to live.

I know that isn’t convenient.  It is only a matter of life and death.  Our children will pay with their lives.
~_~_

I gave you 700 words.  Please leave a comment.