Arming Teachers

Someone suggested to me after being threatened by a student that I think about getting a license to carry a concealed weapon. I pointed out that even if you have a license to carry that concealed weapon you are not permitted to bring it on school property. Besides, I would not feel comfotable with a gun. I do believe everyone has the right to protect themselves, but a gun is not the option for me.

I've devoted this blog to telling my story and researching school violence prevention. I have looked at puchasing school safety plans, metal detectors, and steps a teacher can take to prevent school violence. I would like to turn my attention to the most controversial preventative measure of them all: arming teachers with guns. I found this article about arming educators in Utah. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/10/17/earlyshow/main2096721.shtml?source=RSSattr=HOME2096721

The number of school shootings that have taken place in the last ten years is unsettling. Parents and communities want solutions. Proponets argue that giving teachers a firearm is the only way to effectively deal with school violence. A teacher on the premisis with a gun would get to the scene much faster than police could. These people also claim that armed teachers would serve as a deterrent to prevent school violence in the first place. Utah has actually held teacher firearm training sessions.

One Republican Senator, Frank Lasee from Wisconsin, wants to implement legislation that would allow this. He proposes we train teachers how to use a firearm and then put those guns in a safely locked place. He uses examples of armed teachers from Israel and Thailand to show that arming teachers is known to work.

I subbed last year in a Teen Literature class. They were reading Shooter, a book about a school shooting. The lesson plan was to have a class discussion about arming teachers as a way of deterring school violence. The kids thought it was a terrible idea. Many of them said they would not feel any safer knowing their teacher had a weapon. Although, they did say they might behave better. Almost all of them said they would be fearful to go to class knowing a teacher had a gun.

I do not feel we should allow teachers to carry guns. Yes, guns do deterr crime; however, it is a huge responsibility and liability to have guns on school grounds in the presence of kids. A child could accidently injur him/herself if h/she were to stumble upon the weapon. In dealing with larger kids, teachers must know how to protect their gun at all times, much like a police officers. Kids could try to take away a weapon to use for an attack.

Isn't this idea hypocritical. We preach to our kids that violence doesn't solve anything. We talk about why it is dangerous to bring a gun to school. We encourage students to speak up when they hear a threat. However, we have no problem allowing teachers to bring a guns to school. I believe as adults we should set good examples for our students to follow. Bringing a gun to school would not be the best behavior to model for them.

Where would a teacher keep a gun, anyways ? In a desk? In a locked cabinet? On their person? Well, you can't keep it adequately locked up in a desk. Anyone in the room would have access to the gun, which defeats the purpose of using it as a deterrent. If you lock the gun in a cabinet it may be too time consuming or too dangerous to retrieve it when needed. I would not be comfortable wearing a gun. I imagine it would be bulky and get in the way.

I think everyone is missing the most obvious fault of this plan. Teachers are just as capable as students of going off the deep end and going on a shooting rampage. If we allow teachers to arm themselves we have made it very easy for a stressed out teacher, intent to harm someone, to carryout his/her act. We even sponsored it by providing the training on how to fire the gun.

I can understand how having a weapon would offer peace of mind to a teacher in the event of school violence. However, I do not think that guns have a place in our schools. Whether a teacher or a student is carrying a weapon there is always the potential for violence. Where do you stand on the issue.