Why Veterans Will Make Great Student Protection Officers...

Col. Patrick “Paddy” Gough USMC (Ret.) June 18th, 2018.

We all know there is an immediate need for active protection capabilities in our schools and public locations if only because they are viewed as easy targets. There is also a corresponding need to employ our military members after they complete their service. These two needs are not mutually exclusive, in fact they are inexorably connected if one makes the effort to connect the two. Student Protection Services (SPS) has made that connection!

The solution to school safety for many schools is fixed assets, visibly armed security and regular drills in the event of an active shooting. SPS’s unique solution to those same challenges, is to place highly trained, responsible, mature, and accountable military veterans in positions of responsibility as proactive, versus reactive, security deterrents and protection teams.  

Investing in SPS professionals to protect our school children is very much like the decisions we make each and every day when we insure ourselves, our loved ones and our property. So, it begs the question, why do we not insure our children’s safety with the same commitment as our car or home and do so when they are at their most vulnerable - away from parents and loved ones. Schools are currently spending hundreds of millions of dollars on fixed assets like cameras, locked doors, smoke machines and fences yet cameras for example only serve to identify perpetrators after the fact and a camera as far as we know has never taken down an active shooter.

The simple fact is that only a highly trained individual with the will and commitment to act, and act immediately, will prevent ongoing threats on what terrorist’s view as easy targets.   

The SPS approach to the protection of our most valuable assets, our children, is to deploy a physical presence within the campuses and to do so without creating undue emotional stress on the students. Even innocuous lock-down and active-shooter drills cause a lot of stress on those young minds and this is why SPS advocates deterrents and protection that fit chameleon like into their environment. It does not take a psychology major to know that visible weapons, and regular drills around an active threat situation do not make a child feel safe. Quite the opposite. “Mummy why does that man have a gun at school", and "is a bad man coming to our school”.

We must all understand that it is our responsibility to keep them safe. It is NOT their responsibility to learn how to react once bullets have started flying. By then it is too late.

This is why SPS professionals are highly trained with elevated levels of weapons proficiency, observation techniques, a passion for the mission and compassion for those in their care. Military personnel often make life changing decisions in the blink of an eye and it is these complex decision-making skills and raw physical courage that makes them ideally suited to place themselves between a threat and our school kids.

By placing highly trained veterans in positions of significant responsibility as both a resource and a deterrent we send a very clear message to anyone wishing our kids harm; this school is no longer an easy target.

Finally, this Country has to come to grips with preventive options rather than post event reactions. No parent should ever have to ask, “why didn’t they protect my child”. The cost to deploy SPS professional’s pales in comparison to the emotional and financial impact should something happen. SPS passionately holds that the loss of even one child’s life due to inadequate security is one child too many.

"Paddy"

Student Protection Services