This week’s school shootings will inevitably produce chin-stroking analyses that attempt to put them into perspective: “Such shootings are relatively rare.” “Can’t guarantee safety in an open society.” “It’s a difficult balancing act.”

Shut up.

Fifty children have died in school shootings in the past 10 years in the United States. Thousands of kids have been terrorized. But society has determined that this isn’t enough. Before we protect schools the way we protect banks, offices and colleges, apparently more will have to die.

This is crazy!

Spokane’s schools lost their on-campus police officers during the city’s recent budget cuts. It wasn’t because they were ineffective and unappreciated; it was because they were the lowest priority. Meanwhile, expect to see those new patrol cars soon.

Rushing in to fill this security breach was … nobody.

We’ve had some rough budgetary times at The Spokesman-Review, but we haven’t gotten rid of security. Think banks would do that? Not with all the money at stake.

But officers at schools? Well, you see, there’s a lot expenses to consider: sports, band, and those enrichment programs funded by citizen-approved levies. Gosh, there’s just not enough left over for safety officers.

Colleges have their own police departments. Schools in Spokane have to pick up a phone. Colleges have enough officers that they can spare a couple to roam dormitory hallways and sniff at doors, just in case someone – gasp! – is smoking pot. No officers are guarding Spokane’s schools.

It took one day of hijackers flying airplanes into buildings to trigger a dramatic overhaul of airport security – cost and inconvenience be damned.

But when it comes to the safety of kids, we turn into accountants and actuaries, making perfection the enemy of progress. Airports and offices aren’t danger-free, but they are safer.

How did the safety of schoolchildren get to be a lower priority than protecting air travelers, federal workers and politicians? Columbine and Moses Lake just weren’t spectacular enough?

Government isn’t going to step forward to better protect schoolchildren. First there has to be a strong demand.

Demand it.

In search of grown-ups. Let’s listen in on a family gathered around the dinner table and having a few communication problems:

Dad: “Son, tell your mother to pass the butter.”

Son: “Mom, please pass the butter to Dad.”

Mom: “Tell your father that he’s had enough butter and that I’d like the salt.”

Son, turning to father: “Mom would like the salt. You can’t have the butter.”

Dad: “Tell your mother that if she doesn’t give me the butter, I won’t give her the salt.”

But enough about the two-year-long squabble between the Spokane County Commission and its chief health officer, Dr. Kim Thorburn. At least our children can turn to national leaders for mature role models. Or can they?

In his new book “State of Denial,” Bob Woodward writes that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld wouldn’t return phone calls from Condoleezza Rice when she was the national security adviser. That’s right, with the nation at war, Rummy wouldn’t pass the butter.