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I recently observed a class for armed defenders in Colorado schools. These defenders put themselves between a murderer and our kids. There are obvious parallels between strength training and self-defense training. In both cases, we make the most progress when we face the right amount of resistance and risk failure. This is what I saw.

You expect a certain number of stumbles from a new administration. President Joe Biden's incoming team professed dismay at having to create a coronavirus vaccine distribution program "from scratch," due to its predecessor's handling of the situation, and this week, Biden complained that "we didn't have" a vaccine when he "came into office." He promised to deliver over 1 million a day. But actually, there were 1.6 million vaccinations administered on Inauguration Day, and Biden had received the two doses of the vaccine on Dec. 21 and Jan. 11. It's easier to achieve your goal if you set the goal...

If Minneapolis school officials and other educators across the country want to keep students safe, they should abandon student discipline policies based on quotas and eradicate notions of 'defunding the police.' Dangerous calls from activists to “defund the police,” including school police, were splashed across the headlines over the summer. Now officials in one school district at the forefront of the movement are having second thoughts.Minneapolis Public School officials were among the first to announce they were canceling their contract with local law enforcement for school security after the tragic incident involving George Floyd occurred in that city. That the...

Maybe now that the impeachment circus is behind us, we can start having a serious conversation about what’s truly at stake in the 2020 election.  Granted, my perspective is biased because my daughter Meadow was murdered in the Parkland school shooting, but to me the most important issue is school safety. And school safety is the clearest reason to re-elect Donald Trump.  This opinion might come as a shock to some parents. After all, the mainstream media did everything it could to spin a narrative that blamed Republicans and/or President Trump for the shooting. But I wasn’t interested in narratives....

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WCBD) – Signs for ‘school prayer zones’ are popping up across South Carolina. A local non-profit said prayers over schools, students and administrators need to become a regular practice, so a woman designed the signs and got the Department of Transportation’s approval to sell them to local churches to be placed on their property. “This is a perfect example of church and state. Whereas we’re staying out of the area of the state but we’re bringing it onto the land of the church,” said Vanessa Frazier with Christ Teens. The woman who came up with the idea said...

On April 20, 1999, two teens carried out an attack at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. Twelve students and one teacher were killed during the assault and more than 20 others were wounded before the teen attackers committed suicide. This horrifying event shocked the nation and caused immeasurable grief for the survivors and the families of the deceased and wounded.Over the past 20 years, there have been many discussions about the best way to keep students safe, as well as new legislation at the state and federal levels. Although school entrances have been hardened, firearm laws have been tightened,...

Sometimes, during my drive to work, I listen to Clarence Maurice Mitchell IV, host of the Baltimore's WBAL C4 radio show. Mitchell was formerly a member of Maryland's House of Delegates and its Senate. In recent weeks, Mitchell has been talking about the terrible crime situation in Baltimore. In 2018, there were 308 homicides. So far this year, there have been 69. That's in a 2018 population of 611,648 -- down from nearly a million in 1950. The city is pinning its hopes to reduce homicides and other crime on new Police Commissioner Michael Harrison. Another hot news item in...

The Trump administration has revoked an Obama-era policy that urged public schools to employ more lenient forms of discipline for students of color and of other minority groups. On Friday, the U.S. Departments of Education and Justice rescinded the Obama administration’s 2014 “Dear Colleague Letter” that a federal school safety commission said “may have paradoxically contributed to making schools less safe.” The Obama-era Departments of Education and Justice, under Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Attorney General Eric Holder, issued school guidelines that claimed students of color are “disproportionately impacted” by suspensions and expulsions, a situation they said led to a...

There Are No ‘Credible Allegations’ Against Kavanaugh Defense Department Fails to Implement Biosecurity Years After It Said It Would A Sensible Plan to Keep Schools Safe A Terrorist Resides in Arizona Four Years after U.S. Grants Refugee Status There Are No ‘Credible Allegations’ Against Kavanaugh Leftists are trying to kick the Senate confirmation for a Supreme Court nominee down field and past the November elections. They have shown they will do so at any cost. While compelling emotionally, Ms. Ford has no witnesses and no facts to back up her story. There was no legitimate reason the allegations were...

WTNH) - Senator Chris Murphy is urging the U.S. Department of Education to stop allowing school districts to use federal funds to arm teachers. He asked the education panel for research on arming teachers. "Are any of you aware of any data that suggest arming teachers makes our schools safer? Neither am I," he said. Related Content: Connecticut senators speak out against arming teachers In September, Murphy introduced an amendment to a bill that would block federal funds to buy guns. Senate Republicans did not allow for a vote on the amendment.

Require all Schools get insurance for students while on school property. Why? Because look what is required for you to have employees on your property. The Insurance Company's underwriters require that you pay insurance rates that are subject to the likelihood that they will sustain a claim. What does this mean, 1. those insured take steps to reduce their rates such as taking steps that are identified by insurers that reduce their risk. 2. those who are extremely risky can't obtain insurance and therefore can't have students. 3. the insurance companies investigate all claims to determine the root cause to...

In the wake of the recent horrific shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, a number of proposals involving federal grant programs have been offered in Congress to try to address the critical issue of school safety. Empowering states and localities to implement evidence-based programs that meet their needs represents a sensible approach. Among the proposals under consideration is the Students, Teachers, and Officers Preventing (STOP) School Violence Act of 2018, which has been introduced in the House by Rep. John Rutherford, R-Fla., a former sheriff, and in the Senate by Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah. Both House...

American businessman Foster Friess wants to end school shootings, and he’s offering to match up to $2.5 million in donations to do it. Friess, writing in USA Today, says the donations to the National Christian Foundation’s “Return to Civility Fund” would “go specifically to programs that improve school safety, develop youth mentoring, and promote a return to civility in our schools.” Donors have until March 24th to have their contributions matched. Friess believes it is important to address the core issue surrounding school shooters by attacking the problem directly: the shooter himself.

Bringing guns into schools ‘does nothing to protect’ our students, educators from gun violence Washington, DC - February 21, 2018 - In a listening session at the White House today, Donald Trump proposed to arm teachers and school staff in an attempt to prevent mass shootings.The following can be attributed to NEA President Lily Eskelsen García:“Bringing more guns into our schools does nothing to protect our students and educators from gun violence. Our students need more books, art and music programs, nurses and school counselors; they do not need more guns in their classrooms. Parents and educators overwhelmingly reject the...

The Khyber Pakhtunkhua provincial government of Pakistan has its taken steps to make its schools harder targets for terrorists.  In December of 2014, it suffered the worst terrorist attack in the nation's history when seven foreign naitonals attacked the Army Public School in Peshawar, the provincial capital.  The seven terrorists killed 141 people, 132 of them school children.  The attack may have been modelled after the Beslan school attack in 2004.  The Government of Kyber Pakhtunkhua has had a different response than the Russian one.  The Kyber government has authorized its teachers and other employees to carry guns.  An...

"I want to see my kids! Bang! Bang!" the man shouted as he stormed into the front office of a South Carolina elementary school and pointed a handgun at a secretary and custodian. Both went limp at the verbal gunshots, and the "shooter," a police officer taking part in a school safety drill, continued his rampage. ... All fell to the floor with bloody, fake wounds.

Thanks to a miracle material called Dyneema, the board can repel shots from handguns and shotguns, allowing teachers precious time in case of an attack. Gun advocates say the boards might be one step in a broader school protection strategy. Teachers now have a new line of protection to shield their class from a shooter. A Maryland armor manufacturer has developed bullet proof white boards that teachers can use while conducting class lessons — and during an emergency. The boards are made of a state-of-the-art material called Dyneema, and can repel gun shots from handguns and shotguns — the types...

Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday signed into law a measure ... addressing controversy over an anti-abortion demonstration. Assemblyman Tony Mendoza (D-Artesia) said he wrote the measure in response to a March 2003 incident in which graphic images of an aborted fetus were mounted on a vehicle and driven past a middle school in Rancho Palos Verdes. "Because of the disturbing nature of the photographs, some students at the scene became angry, some began to cry...’’ Mendoza said. The bill was signed three years after a federal court found that the 1st Amendment rights of anti-abortion activists were violated when they...

Unsafe at D.C. Schools by: Bethany Stotts, September 18, 2009 Heritage Foundation scholars recently received data on the number of police-notified incidents at District of Columbia public schools. Taking a more systematic look at “crime-related incidents reported to the [D.C. Metropolitan Police Department] MPD during the 2007–2008 school year, excluding the summer months,” an August 28 analysis by David V. Mulhausen, Don Soifer and Dan Lips (Mulhausen et al.) added to the body of knowledge demonstrating how unsafe D.C. schools really are. “During the 2007– 2008 school year, 3,500 incidences of crime were reported to the Metropolitan Police Department from...

Too Bureaucratic for Bureaucrats by: Deborah Lambert, July 15, 2009 It had to happen. Now even the teachers in the UK are having second thoughts about the nanny state. A recent survey conducted by Teachers TV showed that nearly half the country’s teachers think that school safety measures have gone so far as to actually inhibit learning, according to SkyNews.com. When asked to name the most restrictive measures, some of them included actions like “banning running in playground, canceling physical education classes when the grass was wet, and making students wear goggles when putting up posters. Others listed were “banning...