Sixteen Years

 We're learning more about the Minneapolis shooter and what we're learning is disturbing.

He was part of the LBGTQAI community.  He was a full-grown adult and he purchased his firearms legally.

In 2002 our local sheriff spotted a trend and decided to do something about it.  He passed a tax initiative, a one-cent sales tax to fund it.  He promised the voters that he would put a fully qualified in each school in the parish. The tax passed in the spring of the year and the sheriff started identifying deputies to work the schools.  I was one of those deputies selected.

The School Board initially resisted.  To no avail.  The concept had been voted on by the citizens of the parish. We, my fellow School Resource Officers, did not work fort the schools.  We worked for the Sheriff.  We were free to conduct law enforcement to the best of our abilities and training.

In my sixteen years as a school-house cop, no one was seriously injured on my watch.  I  attended a lot of sporting events, wandered the halls of the school, and made a few arrests. Sometimes the principal was happy, sometimes the principal was not.  I didn't work for them.

Would a Resource Officer have made a difference in Minnesota?  We'll never know, will we?  However, having a trained law enforcement officer on scene when the day goes sideways is never a bad thing.