The Parklandschool shooting has left us emotionally vulnerable as we search for solutions for our children's safety.  Any ideas put forward must fight their way through partisan barriers to gain any credibility in the forum of reasonable discussion.

Gun control and Second Amendment rights dominate the headlines, with mental health and First Amendment rights running a close second.  School safety appears to be in the also-ran column.

While we may be immersed in a shroud of rhetoric, one avenue of investigation is compellingly simple: how do other nations cope with school safety?  President Trump, among others, has noted the success of security measures employed by our sister state of Israel.  The short story of the Israeli program being popularized is the "hardening" of security by arming teachers, a concept that is only limitedly true and practiced in a social context significantly different from the United States, yet a program that holds much promise.

Keeping malevolent people out of and away from schools has proven unacceptably difficult in a society as open as the U.S., leaving our learning institutions unprotected or under-protected and our children unconscionably vulnerable.  Is it time, if not late, to arm the school staff?

Probably so, but the strategy would be uniquely American and only partially modeled on Israel.  The U.S. may live in apprehension of terrorism, but Israel lives under siege by its neighbors.  Consequently, constant security is a way of life in Israel.  Schools, as well as other public institutions, are under regular external security watch.  Internal school security guards and staff bear only a share of the overall burden of safety.

Unless and until American law enforcement rises to the task of denying attackers access to schools, the arming and training of internal guards and staff constitute the only real line of defense between evil and our children, a proposition well worthy of consideration.

Many educators are understandably aghast at the prospect.  Few teachers are warriors, and the serious level of training required is daunting.  Fortunately, the structure of American public education affords a remarkably simple solution.  According to the U.S. Department of Education, for the years spanning 1950 to 2009, the number of K-12 public school students increased by 96%, while the number of teachers escalated by 252%, and the cadre of administrators and staff soared by 702%.  Non-teaching positions outran the increase in student population sevenfold, an unfathomable bureaucratic bloat.  In the opinion of the nonpartisan Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice, a more reasonable expansion of teaching and staff positions would have freed up an additional $37.2 billion per year.

Whoever can't find funding for highly trained armed security positions in their staff budget would never make it through third-grade arithmetic.  Teachers would remain free to teach, and security would be left to professionals.  With professionals covering the inside, law enforcement agencies might even find the will and the way to keep terrorists, whether foreign or home-grown, away from the schoolhouse doors.

Dean Kedenburg is an anthropologist in the hamlet of Leucadia, California.