Former Education Secretary Bill Bennett says schools should hire armed guards to protect their students.
“I’m not so sure . . . I wouldn’t want one person in a school armed, ready for this kind of thing,” Bennett, who served under President Ronald Reagan, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” program, the
New York Post reports.
“It has to be someone who is trained. It has to be someone who is responsible. But, my God, if you can prevent this kind of thing . . .”
His comments come after Friday’s killing of 26 students and staff at a school in Newtown, Conn. Despite that tragedy, schools are apparently much safer than in the past. In the 2009-2010 academic year, 17 children ages 5 to 18 died in homicides at school, traveling to or from campuses or at school events, according to the U.S. Education Department, Bloomberg reports.
That’s about half the annual total during much of the 1990s. Among more than 50 million students, the school-related death toll has been about 1 percent of all homicides for that age group.
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