Students are naive

To the editor: Are these kids that creampuff? (Courier Sept. 14, ‘Students react’) Ten years ago, when I went to high school, we had Bergen County Sheriff’s Officers patrolling the hallways. They were there on the campus every morning when we got there, and every evening when we left. They might have been Bergen County Police; I don’t really recall. Mostly, the reason I don’t remember is because I didn’t pay attention to them. And if we’re talking about “inner city” schools, I went to Bergen County Technical High School; hardly “inner city” and “ghetto”. We didn’t have metal detectors and constant locker searches. We even walked around the hall, goofed off, skipped classes, and waved to the officers as we did so. As for the fact that “those types of [violent] things don’t happen in a small town like this”; this rather shows the naivety of our Pennsylvania teens. In fact, most of these school shootings do happen in small-town environments, simply because the populace is unprepared for that outcome. If it happened in schools that were patrolled, the assailants would be shot. So, of course bored small-town children and professional miscreants would choose a small-town school for their stage. If it ever did happen here, you’d have to wonder if the patrolling officer would be prosecuted for putting the lives of the students at danger, by protecting them. You just can’t win with people; mostly because, unlike the Ditech commercials, people aren’t smart. I’m glad that at least some of our school students are intelligent, and have no problem with officers patrolling the school grounds. William Wade Milford