Sent to me by my friend, Mark Gavoor, former VP Colgate/Palmolive:
I was at the College of Lake County for a little prep work for the upcoming semester. As I was about to enter, I noticed new decals on all of the doors: a black silhouette of a handgun with a red circle with a diameter going from 1 o’clock to 7 o’clock. OK… no handguns or guns of any kind. Gee, did we need a decal to re-enforce the obvious? Does this mean knives and machetes are OK? Why only guns? The door could have been littered with stickers. No battle axes. No chainsaws. No spears, lances, swords, hatchets, shovels, picks, or anything else that could be used as weapon. Why are there no stickers on the doors for these things. I suppose because they did not specify, I would be within my rights to to drive an M1 Abrams Tank into the building”¦ there is no sign telling me not to.
Who is this sign supposed to deter? Sensible, law abiding people, the 99.99% (totally my guesstimate) of us would never consider carrying any weapon into a public building like a school. How about the .01% of criminals, evildoers, or deranged men that we keep reading about not only carrying weapons into schools but then shooting people indiscriminately. Would such a sign deter them? Would someone at the end of their rope, intent on doing harm, and armed to the teeth stop in his tracks by this sign and mutter: “heck I was unaware. I guess I will just turn around and go home.” Of course they wouldn’t.
Thus, the sign deters no one. Then why put them up? It seems like a small waste of money and time.
My new book addresses this issue, “Creating Safe Schools: A Guide for School Leaders, Teachers, Counselors and Parents” will be published by Routledge on April 3, 2014. It can be pre-ordered on their website, www.routledge. com or from Amazon.