School Shooting Solutions on a Local Level

My nonstop daily prayers envelop the people of Parkland, Fla. Their lives have been changed forever.

Let me share some of my observations about the latest school shooting catastrophe.

We can never stop all shootings, but we need to talk about some common-sense approaches to confront this growing problem.Throughout the Southcoast, we need solution-based discussions about correcting any of the weakest links in local school building security.

Can you tell me when was the last time a school burned down? Yet, it's a good thing that we're still running fire drills. Now, compare fires to school shootings, and I don't think we have trained our teachers and students how to react as well if an active shooting occurs.

And please, let's get past the rhetoric of "either defend yourself, stay put or hide," because that doesn't do squat. These shootings are real and so must our school shooter drills.

Over the past seven years, deputies were called to the home of the suspect 39 times! HELLO????

Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel, in so many words, told the crowd of crying parents and mourners that if any public servant expected to get re-elected there, they needed to vote for gun control. Why did he stop there? Why didn't he just say to ban murder, too?

The people we elect have been spending too much time and money on illegals in America, while virtually ignoring funding for securing our schools and dealing with mental illness.

And as hatred festers, it stuck its ugly fangs into this tragedy when anti-Trumpers savaged the father of one of the students killed because he was wearing a Trump 2020 T-shirt.

Meanwhile, the hero coach that everyone is celebrating for taking the bullets that saved his students' lives was a loyal Trump supporter.

This is no longer a Republicans-vs.-Democrats, left-vs.-right issue because all of them have failed us. It's time for us everyday people to convene and start offering our observations and solution-based ideas to help lessen school shooting casualties.

Editor's Note: Phil Paleologos is the morning host on 1420 WBSM New Bedford. He can be heard weekdays from 6-10 a.m. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.