Our children enter a potentially dangerous situation every day that they ride the bus or step foot in a school building. Some of the most disturbing cases that have been brought to light by the media lately revolve around incidents that have taken place during school hours. Teenagers have planned and plotted against their teachers and peers. They've brought weapons to school with the intent of carrying out these plans. Some have gotten away with it, while others have been caught in the planning stages.

This brings up the debate of whether teasers should be allowed for self-defense in schools. It's easy to see why teachers, administrators and other school personnel need the ability to protect themselves and the students. One argument is that only trained police officers should be allowed to carry a teaser in a school building. A security guard or administrator does not have the authority to take it upon themselves and taser students who are out of control.

The Benefits of Using Tasers at School

One reason tasers are effective is because they're quick and allow you time to react and get help when you're in trouble. Of course it isn't ideal to teaser children, however, you must be prepared if the need arises.

Tasers are:

* Non-lethal.

* Able to stop a person from up to 15 feet away. This gives you the ability to stop an intruder without getting too close.

* Used by police, security officers and homemakers.

* Have more power than a stun gun.

* 24 W of electric power that effectively stops an intruder.

* Safe and effective.

* Require a background check before you can carry it around.

* Require anyone who carries it to be over 18 years old.

How Do Tasers Work?

A taser is a gun-like weapon that shoots two darts that attach to the attackers clothes or skin. An electric current passes through fine wires that connect the two darts to the taser device. The electric current temporarily stuns the person it hits. The attacker loses muscular control and falls to the floor. The idea of using a teaser is to stop a dangerous person from doing harm to you without inflicting permanent damage to them.

Inappropriate Use of Tasers

One reason the debate over using teasers in schools is the opportunity for them to be used inappropriately. It would give teachers and administrators a sense of power and power is often misused. There are others, however, who feel that teasers are a necessary evil to:

* Provide protection from misguided students.

* Provide protection from angry parents.

* Provide protection from a person who enters school grounds that it isn't supposed to be there.

* To stop riots and enforce crowd control.

* To break up fights if they get out of hand.

The bottom line is that students, teachers and administrators deserve a way to protect themselves. In recent years, schools have become a battleground and even those students who were not originally on the "hit list" sometimes are put in harm's way.

It is today's reality that innocent people sometimes die because no one has the power to stop an out-of-control teenager. Tasers may or may not be the answer for self defense in our schools. One thing most people all agree on is that the violence in our schools needs to be stopped.