After the school shooting in Parkland, Fl., President Trump called for arming teachers to strengthen school security. But, his claim that bringing guns into classrooms and training teachers to use them will make schools safer is naive and misguided. Arming teachers would compromise their roles in the classroom, threaten their relationships with students and pave the way for accidents in schools nationwide.
Carrying guns is not what teachers signed up for. Under Trump’s new proposal, a teacher who completes 132 hours of training can legally possess a concealed weapon at school. 132 hours of training, however, is not enough to prepare teachers psychologically to fire a gun in a mass shooting situation. Using weapons simply isn’t part of their job, and they shouldn’t be held responsible to protect students with a gun. But this doesn’t mean guns don’t belong in schools.
Law enforcement officers, who are armed and trained to use force if necessary, are already working effectively at many schools, particularly in urban areas. Police officers have signed up for this job, but teachers haven’t. Let’s keep it that way.
Some who favor arming teachers criticize the argument that “teachers’ only job is to teach” as an emotional response and not a legitimate reason not to arm teachers. But, putting a gun in the classroom completely alters classroom dynamics. Since Trump’s proposal calls for a publics record exemption to keep private which teachers are armed, students will be distrustful and suspicious. Marginalized students, who are punished disproportionately in education systems, may feel especially unsafe. The classroom will become a place of fear rather than a place of learning, and this is reason enough to keep guns out of teachers’ hands.
Furthermore, the chance of a teacher accidentally discharging a gun during math class is much higher than a teacher taking down a school shooter. Accidents already have happened. At Seaside High School in California, teacher Dennis Alexander, who was teaching a class on gun safety, accidently shot a semi-automatic weapon at the ceiling, injuring three students in March. Teachers are people, and people make mistakes.
Some say that schools have been an easy target for gun violence compared to police stations and gun stores because of school’s lack of weaponry. And it’s true –– 187,000 American students have experienced a shooting on their school campus, according to the Washington Post. But schools aren’t police stations or gun stores, and they shouldn’t be compared to or designed after them. Schools will become less of a target with increased security, increased attention to mental health, and the introduction of sensible gun laws nationwide which aim to reduce easy access to weapons and create a culture of gun safety. The solution to gun violence in schools is tolerating fewer guns, not arming the roughly 3.6 million teachers in the United States.
