By Dave Workman
Senior Editor
A clash of cultures between newspaper editorial boards has unfolded in Washington State over the recent announcement by the school board in Toppenish that this fall, school administrators and some staff members will be carrying firearms as a first line of defense against possible school shooters.
The Tri-City Herald warmed up to the plan, noting that “In school shooting situations, waiting for the police response – no matter how rapid – can cost lives. In a rural area, the police response can take longer, and the thinking is that administrators can respond more rapidly.”
Three days later, the liberal Seattle Times reacted with an editorial that stated, “Arming amateurs is asking for all of the accidents that come with putting guns in inexperienced hands in crowded quarters. The spectrum of tragedy ranges from guns that are dropped, grabbed or stolen to actually discharging a weapon and striking innocent victims.”
Toppenish is a farming and ranching community located about 150 miles southeast, and on the other side of the Cascade Mountains, from Seattle. The distance philosophically can be measured in light years.
This debate comes in the midst of a simmering battle over gun control in the Evergreen State that is about to boil. Two competing initiative measures dealing with background checks are headed for the November ballot.
Initiative 591 is backed by a coalition of hunters, law enforcement firearms instructors, gun collectors, target shooters and Second Amendment activists. It is a one-page measure that also prohibits government gun seizures without due process.
Initiative 594 is supported by a Seattle-based, and well-financed, group calling itself the Washington Alliance for Gun Responsibility. It has received money from Michael Bloomberg’s Mayors Against Illegal Guns. It is an 18-page gun control package that many fear is a precursor to de facto gun registration, and it criminalizes loans of firearms between acquaintances, for all kinds of legitimate purposes, without first doing background checks.
It does not merely require checks for sales of firearms, but for all firearm transfers.
The Tri-City Herald noted that “local police were involved in the discussions” as the policy was created. The newspaper suggested annual training so that in the event of an incident, when police arrive they will be able to tell the good guys from the bad guy.
The newspaper also noted that the Prosser School District about 25 miles further down the Yakima Valley had adopted a similar policy but had not implemented it because the superintendent there “is uncomfortable arming employees and administrators.” In Toppenish, Supt. John Cerna is one of those to volunteer for the armed administrator program.
Meanwhile, the Seattle Times contends, in a somewhat contradictory manner that, “If Toppenish is that concerned, then invest more money in precautions with dramatically fewer possibilities of fatal errors and lethal mistakes.
“Options and alternatives exist,” the Times continued, “but they involve spending money, and predictably that makes school administrators and board members flinch. No, the better, cheaper path is not to arm well-intended educators.”
This culture clash is not exclusive to Washington State. Fox News has reported a controversy in Connecticut where a high school student in Woodbury, doing research on a class project in May discovered that he was unable to access the National Rifle Association’s website from Nonnewaug High School computers. He was able to open web pages for the anti-gun Moms Demand Action and Newtown Action Alliance.
Student Andrew Lampart confronted the school board, and they promised to investigate.
