In the wake of the Uvalde shooting, school security has become a major priority for local governments. A Louisiana veteran says he has an idea for school security that would make a shooter think twice before attacking campus.
Lincoln Savoie, a retired Army chief warrant officer who served in Korea and Vietnam, says retired servicemen could fill the needed role of school security... allowing local law enforcement agencies to put their officers back on the street to fight crime.
"The honesty and integrity are there," Savoie said. "The experience is there, and all the combat veterans we have are unbelievable people that do a good job in defending their country and wouldn't mind serving their country again as a security guard in a school."
According to Savoie, the idea would allow school districts and police departments to protect schools from intruders while allowing understaffed police forces fight crime.
"We all know that all of the cities and the parish police and the marshal's offices across the state are shorthanded," Savoie said. "This would put them back where they really belong. Their job description would be the policing and solving the crimes in the cities and the parishes."
Savoie says under his plan, veterans who volunteer as security guards would be trained and deputized by local law enforcement.
"These people could be talked to and recruited and given a short training session on what has to be done," Savoie explains, adding that local law enforcement would deputize the veterans as civilian peace officers, allowing them to perform the service.
"It's a win-win situation," Savoie says of his plan. "The more people you have patrolling the city streets of every parish, my God, the criminals are going to say, 'My God, I don't want to see any more of these sheriff's cars around me. I'm going to think about doing something else."
Savoie says the presence of a veteran on campus would put students and teachers at ease, allowing the learning process to work seamlessly.
"That could just allow the teachers to teach the A-B-Cs and reading, writing, and arithmetic instead of having to worry about someone coming through the door and killing people."
Savoie says he's already received interest from the St. Landry Parish School Board in his plan. He says he knows veterans there and elsewhere in Louisiana would step up to answer the call.
"All the combat veterans we have are unbelievable people that do a good job in defending their country and wouldn't mind serving their country again as a civilian in the capacity of a security guard at a school."
