Acts of kindness can prevent violence

According to Rep. Phil Thompson, teachers carrying guns in Iowa can prevent school shootings. The bill's floor manager emphasized the importance of the first 30 seconds in such scenarios.

However, this viewpoint overlooks the root cause of shootings and may not prevent some gunshots from being fired.

Several decades ago, while working as a teacher in Texas, I had an incident where a junior high student brought a gun to school. Although he was a good kid, secretly, he had troubles.

Fortunately, he did not use the weapon to cause any harm. The reason for this is not difficult to understand. Violent incidents can be prevented when acts of kindness, love, and compassion are present in classrooms, hallways and lunchrooms.

In turn, legislators must allocate funds to improve the teacher/student ratio, increase the availability of campus nurses, and add additional counselors.

Moreover, to address the threat of active shooters, Iowans must step up as leaders to tackle this crisis. We Iowans need to be the leaders to infuse decency, love, and caring throughout our society — a prior Iowa behavior that needs to return.

A personal duty we need to act upon.

John Clayton, Brooklyn