Apprehended or suspended?

The gun-control debate that has been raging on across the country may soon hit a little closer to home.

Until last week, the Indiana legislature was considering a bill with a portion that could require each of Indiana’s 1,915 public schools to have at least one armed employee.

A week ago, the legislature removed this aspect of the legislation in favor of establishing a school safety board to evaluate school safety and return a report on placing armed guards or employees in schools by Dec. 1.

But if armed cops enter the school system, what will happen to minor infractions that are usually handled by the principals?

The New York Times recently showed that placing cops in schools often forces young children into the justice system for extremely minor crimes that would have been more effectively handled by school administrators.

These charges amount to plea mills — students plead guilty to avoid lengthy court proceedings and are assigned to community service or probation.

Students who establish a relationship with the justice system at an early age often re-enter it later on, especially because programs like probation can arrest students again for things as minor as an unexcused absence.

Police officers are also infamously unprepared for responding to a child’s misbehavior proportionately.

In 2012, Salecia Johnson was 6 years old when she was arrested, placed in handcuffs and taken to a police station in Milledgeville, Ga., for throwing a temper tantrum during a day at kindergarten.

In 2011, school administrators in Stockton, Calif., arranged for 5-year-old Michael Davis to meet with police officers in an attempt to scare him straight.

Claiming Davis “kicked me in the right knee,” Lt. Frank Fordo charged him with battery, bound his hands and feet with zip ties and took him to a hospital for a psychiatric evaluation.

If an armed guard can prevent somebody from bringing a weapon to school because they know there is somebody there with equal force, then perhaps the tax dollars they require are worth it.

But if someone gets into a lunchroom scrap like kids will inevitably do, police officers should have the training to leave the discipline to the school. Is it too much to ask for them to forego arresting toddlers?

Of course many people are skeptical that any random school employee with a gun will really prevent violence. There are also a lot of potential pitfalls if every kid with a school record suddenly ends up in the slammer.

All things considered, an armed school guard might make the mean world just a little bit nicer whether the idea is scary or not.

But feeling safe is necessary to being able to learn, and safety is a concept that can be destroyed by an overzealous police officer just as easily as it is destroyed by threats of violence from the outside.

Safety isn’t something we can create with a magic wand and a badge.

For our schools to be peaceful places of learning, we must empower everyone in the building — from the guy who mows the lawns to the principal — to take a stake in school security.

Putting all our hopes in the guy with the gun is not a solution.