In a post-Sandy Hook world, education policy has taken a sharp turn toward finding ways to keep children at school safe.
Educators, politicians and officials are looking into not only hiring armed guards, but even arming teachers and giving them concealed weapons training.
Recently, a Staten Island education panel made the recommendation to the New York Department of Education to hire 300 to 500 retired police officers to serve as plainclothes security guards, carrying concealed weapons.
At the same time, politicians around the country are examining current laws that preclude anyone other than police officials to carry weapons in schools.
Some have even gone so far as to propose plans that would have armed volunteers patrolling the areas around schools.
These recent plans beg the question, should we be arming civilians, meaning teachers and volunteers, to protect our children? Schools need to be safe, there is no question about that, but by arming teachers and other volunteers and sending them into schools, we are placing students at risk in a different way.
Just because someone has a concealed weapons permit and knows how to shoot, it does not mean that they are trained to protect and discern between a credible threat and false alarms.
Police officers are trained to recognize threats and handle them without the use of force, if possible.
Additionally, there are policies, laws and processes designed to protect them should something go wrong.
The last thing that needs to happen is to have an unarmed teenager or child shot on school grounds by a teacher or civilian volunteer because of a perceived threat.
While politicians and officials have been floating these ideas and plans around, school officials and unions have been vehemently opposed to the idea of arming teachers.
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School Chancellor Kaya Henderson voiced her opposition against such plans pointing out that they had armed guards at Columbine when that shooting happened.
"Every day all kinds of tense and crazy things happen, but we equip them with tools to manage those issues," Henderson said to The Washington Post.
"And I just think the more guns there are, the more opportunities there are for unintended things to happen.
" It seems that the right course of action to keep children safe at school would be to put more money into increasing police presence both at schools and in the surrounding areas.
This would increase response time should anything occur.
Additionally, in every school shooting, the shooter was deeply disturbed and suffering from mental health issues.
More money should be funneled into the school counseling and psychology programs to better identify and help those who are struggling with these issues before they lash out.
Ultimately, something needs to be done in order to ensure that our children are safe.
However, we must make sure to find a responsible way that will not place them at risk in other ways.