Is Arming Teachers Necessary?

 

I have been lucky to teach for the past 5 years as a part of Montgomery County Public Schools. In the past 5 years, I have taught a total of 3 different grade levels. I have taught First Grade for two years, Third Grade for 2 years, and I currently am in my first year of teaching Second Grade. I have been at an Elementary School for all of my years teaching and I completed all of my student teaching in college at Elementary Schools. Each year we practice emergency drills with our students in order to help show them what we would ever do if there was an emergency in the building. We focus on how to keep ourselves safe if there was a threat outside of the building as well as if there was a threat inside the building. 

As an adult, we hear the news each day reporting different stories of mass shootings taking place all across the country in schools across all levels. Most recently, the Uvalde, Texas, tragedy is on many peoples minds. When news of this shooting reached parents, staff and students at the end of last school year, it shook many people in my school building. At the time, I was teaching Third Grade and had a range of different reactions in my classroom from my students. I had some students who were too informed for their age, I had some students who knew the kid-friendly version of the tragedy, and then students who had no idea where Uvalde was located on a map. It was very interesting to see how many of my students knew, understood and were scared to be in school the weeks that followed the Texas shooting. In addition to the students, so many of my colleagues and other teacher friends were understandably so feeling uneasy. As a teacher, you instruct students what to do in a case of an emergency, and hope that you never will ever be in that type of situation. But the reality of the situation is you never really know. 

Over the past few years, there has been debate in the news about whether or not teachers should be armed at school and if arming teachers can help to minimize tragedy in case of an attack to a school. I read that article "Trained, Armed and Ready to Teach Kindergarten" by Sarah Mervosh that was posted in the New York Times. The article pointed out that the idea of arming teachers is very much so debated among many groups of people. It was noted that while many schools have school resource officers (SRO), "There is also little evidence that school resource officers are broadly effective at preventing school shootings" (Mervosh, 2022). I think about how there are some schools that have had tragic incidents of school shootings that have had SROs and have still suffered losses that I can't help but think about schools like my own that do not have SROs. What about us? Who is there to help protect us? I have full faith in police to make a decision and do what is best to help deescalate a situation upon arrival, but would having an SRO at each school help to stop tragedy before it even strikes? I once saw the National Rifle Association (NRA) tweet on July 18, 2022 that stated “the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.", but we have to think of who those "good guys" are. Is it a teachers job to also take on that responsibility on top of all other roles they have? 

I have a tough time taking a side with this debate. I grew up with my mother as a principal of a private school located in Olney, Maryland. I remember her vividly telling the fear she felt during the 2001 Sniper Attacks in the DMV area and how worried she was for her students and the pressure it caused to get her children out of the building and home as quickly and safely as possible. I am currently a teacher and I can honestly say that I love my students with my whole heart and in a case of emergency, I would do anything and everything I could to protect them over my own life. I worry about the limitations that the classroom provide about keeping myself and my 24 little babies safe, but I know that I would do all that I could to defend and protect us if need-be. I also grew up knowing about firearms and how to safely handle them and use them. My grandfather used to be a NRA instructor so he thought it was important for me and my siblings to know the dangers and uses of firearms when we were old enough to understand and take it seriously. While I feel comfortable around guns and have had experience shooting them (controlled at ranges!), I'm not sure how comfortable I would feel having a firearm in my classroom at school with me. There is a part of me that still just feels that firearms are not meant to be in the school setting. Maybe I am having a difficult time grasping the idea that teachers may even be put in the position of needing to use a gun because I have a warped perception and sense of invisibility. We always like to think it wouldn't happen to us. 

What are your thoughts on teachers being armed at schools? 

Mervosh, S. (2022, July 31). Trained, Armed and Ready. to Teach Kindergarten. The New York Times. Retrieved October 1, 2022, from https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/31/us/teachers-guns-schools.html?searchResultPosition=20