Kate Tice

In 2007, I was an assistant principal at a middle school. A car backfired across the street from the school playground. Both staff and students heard it and thought it was a gun shot. As the lead emergency personnel, I was in charge until the police arrived. I put the school on lockdown, called the police, and notified the SRO. When the police arrived, they took command of the school. They went from classroom to classroom, opening the door and entering the rooms with guns drawn. They worked in unison with the SRO. The principal and the assistant principals were ordered to stay in their offices and lock the doors. Police kept in contact with us via walkie-talkie. After the school was cleared, the police, gave us a report and debriefed staff. Many of the teachers were shaken because the police entered every locked classroom with guns drawn.

Every principal at every school that I’ve ever worked at has been responsible for formulating and submitting an emergency plan to the district before school starts. The plan designates who is in charge in case of an emergency and what each person’s role is. It also outlines the procedure for what happens in a crisis and who is the person in command until the police arrive. Faculty are not required to go out and face danger, but they are in charge of making sure the police are called, the SRO is notified, the school is locked down, etc. I have been the person in command at several schools.

Under no circumstance have I ever seen the police stand back. I have also never seen a situation where the SRO officers did not have a master key. As a principal, I had a master key, the janitors had a master key, and in most cases, I also had a master key as an assistant principal. I do not understand how the situation in Texas came about.

Where was the school’s emergency plan? Where was the principal or the person who was the leader during an emergency? Who was in charge? Why didn’t the police shoot the door handle if it was locked and they did not have a key? This was a tragedy of an individual’s mental illness, and failure to enact emergency plans that should’ve been rehearsed repeatedly during lockdown and emergency preparedness drills.

Was this negligent approach because of a lack of caring? Or was it the fact that the police felt that they were out gunned because of the nature of the weapon the young man had? Why is it that we are the only country in the world that tolerates this? Our children and our teachers are not safe.

Senator Ted Cruz said at a NRA meeting, “the only defense against the bad guy with a gun is a good guy with the gun.” 19 police officers were standing outside of the door with guns during this carnage. These 19 good guys did not prevent or stop this tragedy. We need stricter gun laws. We need to ban the purchase of weapons of war. We need background checks. Until we institute common sense measures, our children will be afraid to go to school.

My pastor did a series on the wrath of God; how He punished Old Testament Israel when they disobeyed his laws. The punishments included invasions and enslavement in Babylon. God’s laws warn us not to oppress and take advantage of widows, orphans and foreigners. Christians believe His word is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.

Mary and Joseph fled with the infant Jesus to Africa to save Him from Herod’s slaughter of infants in Bethlehem. Ancient Rome was highly managed; they also occupied Egypt. Rome was counting the World so that they could be taxed. I doubt that Joseph and Mary checked in with the Romans at the border. They more than likely crossed the Egyptian border and went into hiding.

Many people fled to the United States from violence in South America. Some arrived with their relatives, some children were sent alone in order to save their lives. The United States of America, the richest civilization that ever existed on the face of earth, took desperate foreign children away from their parents and put many in cages. Some arrived as families. Some were women and children; possibly widows whose husbands died along the way or were executed in the carnage in some South American countries. Their stories are numerous.

We made some of them orphans. We mistreated foreigners in our land. We put infants in cages often and left them for hours in dirty diapers. We refused to give many of them flu shots because it would be giving free medical care to illegal aliens. Several children at the border were noted to have died from influenza.

Now God has put us in cages! We cannot leave our homes! He sent a plague to our land; to the world.

We need to pray for forgiveness and atone for our sinfulness as a nation. We have broken God’s laws.

“Whatsoever you do to the least of my brethren that you do unto me.”

Paper stimulus checks won’t arrive until August for people who do not have online checking and auto deposits… 5 month to get money for food and rent. This exposes the underbelly of American society; wealthiest society that ever existed. Using a biblical comparison we are possibly richer than Solomon yet lines are wrapped around the block to get emergency bags of food from charity after missing a couple pay checks. It is deplorable.