Massacre in Texas: in the town of Utopia, teachers go to school armed

At the school entrance in Utopia, Texas, a sign reads: “Warning! This school is protected by armed personnel.” The move was taken in 2018 to prevent school massacres as happened on Tuesday just 50 km from there, in Uvalde.

Utopia, a town lost between hills and vast farms, is a quiet place with about 200 inhabitants. A handful of streets, a main road with a dozen shops and a little more.

Residents are still expecting the tragedy to hit Uvalde this week, when a young man shot and killed 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary School.

“There’s no way to 100% prevent things like this from happening,” said Michael Derry, Utopia school district director since 2020.

“But I think the fact of knowing that there are armed people here and they will do whatever it takes to protect children is very deterrent,” he added.

That measure, which has been applied by dozens of schools in Texas since the state approved it in 2013, it has returned to the news in the United States, which is once again debating how to stop shootings in its schools.

Teachers or police?

Teachers who want to carry a gun must have a license and apply to the school board, which gives permission or not after checking the employee’s background, Derry, 56, explains.

For him, this initiative is also a way of alleviate the absence of the police in the Utopia area of ​​northeastern Uvalde County.

“We’re very isolated. And the sheriff’s department is focused on the south of the county because of people crossing the border. [con México], so it takes at least 25 or 30 minutes for agents to get here. It’s been too long. “

In a classroom with display cases full of trophies from school sports teams, Bryson Dalrymple, in his 50s, is emotional when he thinks of the massacre in Uvalde, the city where he grew up.

“It’s heartbreaking and scary for the kids,” said this science teacher, who is also responsible for school security, where kids go from preschool to the final year of high school.

arguments

According to him, in the event of an attack, teachers’ weapons make it possible to “eliminate the problem before it worsens.”

On Tuesday, Texas Attorney General Ken Patxon defended on Fox News the need for more colleges to arm their workers.

“We can’t stop bad people from doing bad. But maybe we can arm and train teachers and other employees to respond quickly. For me, that’s the best response,” he said.

Rejection

The National Education Association (NEA), which brings together many teaching professionals, reject those proposals.

“Placing more guns in schools makes schools more dangerous and does nothing to protect our students and teachers from gun violence,” NEA President Becky Pringle said in a statement this week.

“Teachers should teach, not act as armed security agents,” he added.

Sugar Bennett initially opposed the decision of the Utopia school, where his son Jason attends.

But that 46-year-old woman changed her mind when she saw how the hunt was so repetitive in the country.

That initiative “makes me feel safer,” he said, sitting at a table at Lost Maples, one of the few restaurants in town.

In front of him, Jason accepts the fact that some of his teachers have guns, especially after the Uvalde hunt.

“They have enough experience with weapons to defend us if necessary,” he said.

A few blocks from the restaurant, to the classroom full of trophies, Dalrymple promised he would do everything to ensure the safety of his students.

“The kids here are like my own children. And if something bad happened here, I would give my last breath to protect them,” he says.

Source: AFP

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