As I heard the news of the school shooting at Marysville, I found myself thinking, once again, how we can keep our community safe from this type of disaster. Clearly this is a multi-faceted problem of our generation, and I applaud any and all efforts to address the problem at its roots.

That said, I think there will always be some youth who feel the need to act out violently at school, who fall through the cracks before anyone notices their building anger.

One common thread that jumps out repeatedly in these stories is the amount of thought and preparation that the shooters seem to put into place before they turn to action. Another pattern I’ve noticed is the tendency to choose a public part of the school — often the lunch room.

One suggestion I think deserves consideration is to promote some good old-fashioned community policing at the high school and middle school campuses.

Community policing typically encourages police officers to dine where their citizens do. I can’t think of a better place for our deputies to be having lunch than at the high school and middle school. If they did, it seems it would give any potential shooter pause if he or she thought they might have to deal with an armed police officer eating lunch at the table next to their target.

In the best-case scenario, we would find all our despondent youth, get them the help they need, and our students all get to know our deputies by their first names. Seems like a win-win to me.

I believe strongly enough in this idea that I’ll sponsor any meals for officers during the month of November.

— Jar Lyons