“Children must be taught how to think, not what to think.” Margaret Mead, American cultural anthropologist.

 

This column has to be one of the hardest I have attempted to write. It’s about a touchy and controversial subject in much of the news of today. Without a doubt, school shootings and gun control are two of the hottest subjects in the news these days (unless one listens to all of the endless political pollution caused by either supporters or haters of President Trump, most of which is totally useless garble). Unfortunately, even the Town of Windham Police Department became entangled in the web of those seeking news no matter whether it really was significant or not.

 

Having served in the military for 20 years and having been an infantryman who went to Vietnam, I know what it means to be fully trained for what’s to be expected. I eventually did two tours of duty in Germany, the last of which was in several different military postal units. Even those units had to train for combat because of the Cold War that was going on, and I assisted in training a unit that could not pass their combat training. At one time I was also stationed in Heidelberg at the US Army headquarters, which terrorists attacked with a couple of car bombs seconds after I drove out of the parking lot.

 

So I will first state it is my opinion that at least I now know the Windham Police Department is attempting to train for a possible, but hopefully never, terrible event on a school campus. If training events fail, which even happened to me, it’s not such a bad thing. Please take time to realize that’s what training is for. It shows Windham’s finest needs improvement there and that’s a real solid thing to know. Unfortunately, we live in world of what I consider news at any cost and that is even happening in Maine with all the threats of violence against schools. What is perhaps wrong is that after a school shooting happens, all of a sudden there’s a whole bunch of information out there that someone should have noticed and brought forward. And worse, sometimes the information was brought forward and not one person did anything to stop it.

 

I believe different police departments should train together along with county sheriffs and state police. Yes, training costs money but the lack of training can cause deaths. However, it goes to show that students need training as well at all levels of their education. I hate the idea of students having to pass through metal detectors and be locked in school for the day so obviously, those in charge must look what’s being done for security across our nation. I will also add that parents should be aware as well and hopefully, there’s a method in teaching those skills. I dread the thought of arming teachers as they dedicate their lives to the students, and I don’t think they should be put in a situation where they believe they have to shoot one. It sounds easy to instruct a teacher to handle a weapon but my big question is if they can handle the situation facing them.

 

Some have stated let’s arm former members of the military or law enforcement and have them patrol our schools along with local police. It sounds great to begin with, but then there are training, supervision and the cost of all that along with what if one them makes a mistake? Who is then responsible? Please remember that Maine has a state law that mandates the State of Maine Legislature fund local education at the fifty-five percent level. Well folks, sorry to tell you once again that they haven’t come close and yet pretend to.

 

Sadly the Portland School Superintendent made his position on gun control known at one the student rallies. I doubt that he would be for a rally on gun rights. I don’t believe those paid with our tax dollars should be walking off their jobs to promote one side of gun control.

 

Lane Hiltunen of Windham believes taxpayers should be reimbursed for the overcollection of taxes that happened in Windham.