Las Vegas Police Turn to K-9 For School Safety

Safety in our schools is such a hot topic right now. No matter where you fall on the political spectrum, the safety of children in our schools SHOULD BE and I would argue, even IS, a priority for most. Having no kids myself, just seeing some of the tragedies that have happened across our nation at schools is terrifying. It makes me wonder how I would feel if I sent a child of my own to school everyday. Did my parents think about these kinds of things when they sent ME to school and I didn't have a worry in the world except for what time recess was?

Obviously with safety in mind, I believe it to be an obvious thing-- there really isn't a place for weapons in a school. Legally, illegally-- what a distraction. When I was in college, one of my instructors for a Criminal Justice course was a detective for the Spokane Police Department and while he did work in uniform from time to time, he believed that keeping his gun in his holster would be nothing but a distraction- he always left it in his car. By the way, if anyone is going to make me feel SAFE with a gun in the classroom, it would have been him. I appreciated his convictions, though.

I read an article (that you can also read, HERE) that talked about how in Las Vegas, police will be using their K-9 dogs to sniff out school hallways for weapons. These are trained gun detection dogs that will be able to sniff out any weapons in school hallways. In a time where so many debates are going on about how to combat school violence-- police dog presence, to me, seems like something that is pretty middle-of-the-road. The project is being helped along by a grant.

Do you think that K-9 dogs could help school safety here in the Treasure Valley? Would you like to see them in our/your child's school(s)?