Are educators more focused on mop-up than terror prevention?

The Associated Press is reporting that school nurses nationwide are unprepared for a terrorist attack, such as the one that resulted in 330 deaths at a school in Russia last September.

The wire story was filed in Youngstown, where The National Association of School Nurses recently held a disaster-preparedness program. Disaster preparedness trainer Deborah Strouse noted to the AP that many schools don't even have a full-time nurse or health services, and pointed out that Ohio is one of several states that does not require a nurse in every school.

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From the story:

Many are trying to work around tight school budgets and a lack of respect as front-line responders to get the training needed to prepare for the worst.

"Because of 9/11, so many things have changed," said Kathy Steffey, a nurse at Lakeview High School in Cortland. "We have to be prepared for almost anything."

Nearly half the nurses who responded to a National Association of School Nurses survey listed emergency preparedness as their highest priority.

"They're really on the front line before even the EMT person gets there," said Wanda Miller, executive director of the school nurses association. "They are the person that has to react, has to be prepared and must have some kind of plan in place to manage the situations that occur."

The story goes on to point out that schools were recognized as potential terrorist targets long before the seizure of a Russian school in September in which 330 hostages were killed:

Many developed disaster plans following the Columbine school shootings in 1999 or the September 11, 2001, terror attacks. Yet, they do not have the funding to train administrators and teachers on how to carry out the plans, said Julie Underwood, general counsel for the National School Boards Association.

"There's a great unmet need for training and additional security," she said.

Additional security is where the focus truly belongs. But many in our nation seem content to spend efforts on advance preparations for mopping up after a terrorist attack in a school, rather than preventing one.

For proof, look no further than gun control laws which disarm licensed and trained school teachers from bringing their firearms to the classroom, or anywhere within 1000 feet of a school.

From a recent op-ed by OFCC's Central Ohio Coordinator, Gerard Valentino:

Few people remember the school shooting in Pearl, Mississippi that took place in October 1997. Fewer people remember how it ended.

This episode came to a close when Pearl High School Assistant Principal Joel Myrick sprinted a quarter mile to retrieve a personal handgun from his car and confronted the shooter who was unwilling to continue the attack against an armed victim.

Myrick parked so far away from the school to keep from violating federal gun free zone statutes. By the time the shooting spree ended, two students lay dead and seven others were wounded. Myrick's heroic defense of the children at his school was sparsely reported, going mostly unnoticed by the establishment media who were unwilling to report that he used a gun to end the mayhem and murder.

They were also unwilling to ask the hard question - how many children died while Myrick sprinted to his car?

Valentino concludes:

What gun-control advocates fail to grasp is criminals, by definition, do not follow the law and therefore any attempt to keep them from carrying a gun into a given establishment will fail, often with tragic results.

The goal of legislators nationwide shouldn't be to keep armed law-abiding citizens from bearing arms in restaurants, bars, schools and so forth. It should be to keep criminals with guns from entering such locations.

Posting signs designating an area as "gun free" does not keep criminals from entering with a gun; they invite criminals who know nobody can stop them.

And that is exactly what they want.

Related Story:
Op-ed: The False Hope of Gun-Free Zones