Arming Teachers and Bank Tellers

Every time there is a school shooting, we hear about arming the teachers with guns. With all the bank robberies that go on, we have never heard about arming the bank tellers with guns. The American people are saying that bank tellers are not important enough to be secured. Shortly after the shooting at Columbine the idea of arming teachers with guns came about full force. Teachers and other school administrators are there to teach our children.

A total of 6,985 bank robberies occurred last year alone. We may hear of 4 school shootings a year. Bank tellers deal with the public everyday. They may face an attempted bank robber that maybe highly intoxicated, on drugs, or just completely desperate. None of these situations make things safe for a bank teller in their job. The teller has no security between the assailant and themselves, except for the counter. The counter would be easy for anyone to jump over.

Bank tellers are extremely vulnerable to threats and bank robberies. Bank tellers do not get advanced notice that the bank is going to get robbed until it actually happens. With school shootings, another student knew about the plan before it happened and that person never told the proper authorities. Probably because the kids thought that no one would believe them. For example a boy calls 911 to get help for his mom. His first call was taken as a prank.

The boy called back four hours later and the dispatcher still thought it was a prank. When the police finally arrived at the boy"s house, his mother was dead. We can not take what our children say lightly. Maybe that student that knew about the shooting plan and did tell the proper authorities. That student was either brushed off by the proper authorities or the authorities did not believe that student. With no action being taken, it is no surprise that Americans are immune to the violence that goes on in the schools.

Teachers deal with our children 90% of the time. Most teachers see parents of their students a couple times a week to a couple times a year depending on the grade. There are very few instances of an adult walking into the school with the intent to go on a shooting massacre. The schools should have surveillance cameras to monitor locations in the school. The schools should set standards by installing metal detectors at every entrance/exit including emergency exits and security guards at every entrance.

These entrances should have surveillance camera systems all activities. The schools have other options of preventing school shootings. Arming the teachers with guns should never be an option. There are a lot of teachers that are female and can be easily over powered by a student. The assailants that are involved in the school shooting are students. There are many teachers that are not stable. There are teachers who are heavy drinkers, drug abusers, and who perform in child abuse acts.

Other options that are available to both bank tellers and teacher are arming with pepper spray and taser stun guns. Making one entrance and exit accessible to the public with metal detectors and security guards. Better surveillance systems with someone to monitor activity at all given times and adding more security guards. Arming bank tellers is highly more important as arming teachers. Bank tellers should have to go through extensive training to be able to arm themselves with guns and will required continual training throughout their careers.

There should be pay raise for the tellers that complete and passes all the training that would go along with arming themselves. You never hear of a bank teller being suspended for child abuse, drugs or drinking. They deal with thousands of dollars a day. Being in a bank robbery is a very scary thing. Bank teller stays calm during the robbery and need to be praised for that. They go to work everyday never knowing if their bank will be robbed today.