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Editor:
Listening to the discussion regarding safety at Tuesday night's Columbiana school board meeting, I couldn't help but hear the fear. I understand.
I too entrust my child each day to the care of the Columbiana schools. I too hear the news of the latest school shootings and hope we won't be next, that my child won't be cowering in a classroom corner or dead on a classroom floor. I hear the hope for a faster response, to be able to kill the bad kid before the good kids get hurt.
Chief Gladis shared how security always comes at a cost. Like others on Tuesday night, I wonder about financial costs.
I'm more concerned, however, about psychological costs. Whether hardened schools will produce hardened kids. Whether teachers trained to protect will also be trained to suspect. Whether we're further indoctrinating our children into a culture of violence -- where every peer becomes a potential enemy, where public institutions cannot be trusted to protect us, where we ask those we charge with nurturing our children to also potentially kill our children, where we respond to violence with more violence and to the deep problems affecting our communities by increasing firepower.
As a parent, I don't want that for my child. As a pastor, I don't want that for my community.
Rev. Fritz Nelson
Columbiana