Zimmermann Talks School Safety on BBC Podcast

State Rep. Carl Zimmermann, a Palm Harbor lawmaker and teacher at Countryside High School who recently called for a change to the locks on classroom doors in the wake of the deadly Sandy Hook shootings, spoke about school safety Friday on a BBC podcast.

Zimmermann said a recent Palm Harbor Patch story about his proposed legislation caught the eye of the producers of the British media company's "World Have Your Say" news program and invited him to participate as part of an international panel of teachers.

Zimmermann took issue with one of the show's other guests, a teacher from an area of Texas that allows educators with concealed handgun licenses to be armed in schools.

Zimmerman said he isn't sure that armed teachers are the answer because they "tend to be compassionate people."

"I think they might try to talk the person out of it instead of taking the shot they need to take," Zimmermann said.

He also warned that having guns in a school could actually makes students less safe. He pointed to at least one situation at Countryside High where he had to separate students who had been in a serious fight.

"If I had a gun on me, and one of those kids was able to get to it, somebody would have been shot because they were in that mental stage that they just wanted to kill, because they were that angry."

Zimmermann, a Democrat, won election in November in District 65, which covers Tarpon Springs, Dunedin and Palm Harbor. He teaches broadcast journalism at Countryside.

Download and listen to Zimmermann's appearance on the BBC podcast here.