My Experience
I have been a teacher for nearly two decades and last Friday was the first day I was scared to go to school or struggled to remain calm and collected as I taught my classes. Lest you think that I am prone to fear or easily scared off by difficult situations, let me share a little of my background. I have traveled and taught in more than a dozen different countries, few of them places that would make a travel agent's top ten destination list, several former war zones. I have taught war refugees, been trained in proper restraint techniques and have had to restrain students when an alarm or other loud noise triggered a panic attack and they endangered themselves or others. I have also spent more than a decade teaching in the inner-city schools of two different countries, including one of the worst school districts of my state. Walking through metal detectors, breaking up fights, talking to parole officers and watching students being taken away in handcuffs were just a normal part of my day/week until just one year ago. I'm not easily scared, but last Friday and this week I was.
I learned about the school shooting in Florida on the news and, like most Americans, was appalled and heartbroken for the families. Hearing about a school shooting is always upsetting, and my colleagues and I did converse about how one might expect to hear about such things in inner-city schools but mostly it was suburban and rural schools where these incidents were taking place, but none of us were really scared as we came into work. The fear didn't come until later when things started hitting closer to home. A former colleague posted about how her school had an unannounced fire drill and her first thoughts were, "Is this a drill? Is there someone waiting out there to hurt us?" It was just a drill, and all was well, but it was still a stressful few moments. Then I learned that the high school one district over from where I teach (the district I live in) was locked down because of a report of a student with a gun. On the same day a former colleague had her building locked down when a bullet was found in the hallway. That same day another neighboring district high school was also locked down due to a bullet being found. This was all the day after our school's concert was attended by police who also showed up to the start of school the next day because of threatening comments allegedly made by one of our students. The staff learned the details in an email that was sent out later in the afternoon, what felt like to me long after the fact. Today my perspective was changed when my colleague from my most recent former school emailed me a news article that mentioned a specific threat against her (and my former) building. At least I got an email, they had to learn about it from the news....almost a week after the fact.
In all of these situations the police responded appropriately, did everything they could to protect the students and staff and successfully determined either there was no threat or arrested the people involved without incident. I am very grateful to them and thankful for these men and women who risk their lives to protect ours. I know that the same is true of the police as teachers: there will always a be a few who, for whatever reason, don't do their job but for the most part the force is made up of hard-working individuals that truly care about people and serve every day with honor and integrity. That didn't stop the sick feeling in my stomach though and made it only marginally easier to maintain and project a calm, business-as-usual attitude in my classroom.
The Public Debate
The call in the news and social media seems to be largely centered on two different solutions: get the guns out of the hands of the people (strict gun control) and/or train and arm teachers. In the interest of full disclosure I will share some things about myself: I am a union member but I rarely agree with the MEA & NEA on politics, I grew up in a family of hunters (both gun and bow) and was taught at a young age that a gun is a tool--not a toy, I am not a member of the NRA and do not personally own a gun, I have shot guns in the past (including rifles, AR-15s and several different handguns) and am a decent shot when dealing with stationary targets but it is not an activity that I particularly enjoy. That all said I am against BOTH of the proposed solutions and am in support of the MEA petition against allowing guns in schools. If you would indulge me for a few moments further I'd like to explain why I am not in support of these ideas and what, in my experience as a teacher, I believe would actually make our schools safer.
Stricter gun control is not going to stop school shootings. To quote a former principal of mine, "If they want to fight, they're going to fight." In other words, if someone wants a gun, they are going to get a gun. If stricter control and harsher penalties was all it took to solve a problem we wouldn't still have people overdosing on heroin and other drugs. This country was built on the idea that everyone has rights and just because I don't like what my neighbor does or says doesn't mean I can stop him or her from doing/saying it, unless it hurts someone else. I personally don't like handguns and don't see the point to owning a gun you can't use to hunt, but that doesn't give me the right to tell my friends and family who do own these guns they have to get rid of them. If I have the right to push my personal preferences on others then why wouldn't they have the right to do the same? We already have laws that prevent people who harm or might harm others from owning guns, enacting more laws and further restricting access to guns isn't going to solve the problem and goes against a foundational idea our country was built upon.
Arming teachers is an idea that falls under the category of ludicrous, in my opinion. Teachers are here to educate, not control the peace (at least not with weapons, classroom management is in a very real sense controlling the peace but more on how we do this in a moment). Let's consider for a moment an educational situation where everyone agrees there should be armed guards: juvenile detention centers. Who carries the guns and is in charge of security there? Teachers? No, it is a separate group of trained individuals who are specifically hired to be security guards. Why would we expect general education teachers in normal schools to do something that teachers in specialized schools don't have to do? Oh wait, I'm sorry--I was trying to apply logic to a situation where it clearly doesn't apply.
Let's imagine for a moment that we did add yet another responsibility to teachers' already very full plates. How would the teachers be selected for this training and responsibility? Would it be strictly voluntary or would administrators be responsible for choosing them? What type of person would be desired? Would length of time in the profession be a factor? What happens if the people you train and qualify change districts or buildings? What do you do if no one in the building is willing and/or able? The list of questions and problems is, quite literally, endless. At the end of the day though, this is simply not what most teachers want or are willing to do. If I wanted to carry a gun to work every day I would have given the Marine recruiter who approached me after college graduation more than a polite, "Thanks but no thanks."
What I, As A Teacher, Would Do
At the risk of once again trying to apply logic to the situation, may I suggest that some of the best people to talk to about what could be done to improve school safety might just be the people who are in schools every day? It always amazes me how no one thinks that teachers are qualified to tell a plumber how to instal a sink simply because we use them every day, but so many seem to believe they are qualified to tell teachers and administrators how to run a school simply because they graduated from one. It is time to take the politicians and media out of the discussion and leave it to the experts---let's allow teachers and administrators to work with police and security experts to find the best solution. I am not a police officer, nor an expert in security, but I am an expert in schools. A security expert may disagree with my thoughts but this is what I would do to improve school security (much of which is already being done in inner-city schools):
1. Visible badges for everyone: Students and staff are already issued photo id badges in every middle and high school, we use them to buy lunch and check out library books every day. It would not be hard to extend this to elementary schools as well (many elementaries already do issue them). Require every person to wear them in a visible manner so that people who don't belong will be easily identifiable.
2. Swipe card entry: Think about subway stations and amusement park rides--one person goes through at a time and the barriers slide closed in between. School id cards are already scannable (lunch and library use), simply have students walk up to the barriers, scan their id card and then pass through. Many office buildings, particularly in large cities, already use similar methods to control access to their work areas. Students who have been suspended could have their badges blocked so they cannot enter the building. Each day there is a staff member who "mans the booth" and deals with any malfunctions, visitors and students without badges.
3. Floor bolts and door jams: Every classroom door should have a floor or other deadbolt installed on the door. I am talking about the kind of bolt that can only be deployed from inside the room, with the door fully closed and cannot be released from the outside. These are much faster and easier to use than the ropes and cleats that some schools have installed and cannot be opened with a key, should an intruder happen to obtain one. Door jams would be another option, but they have to be easy to use, quick to deploy and actually work. One of my current classrooms is the fire escape route for our pod and so there is no lock on our classroom door. I have been issued a door jam that goes under the door handle and is supposed to brace the door closed. The first time the police officer running our ALICE drill attempted entry he was successful in less than ten seconds (and that was with several tables and desks piled against the door). The next time, assuming I was not strong enough to properly jam the door, I asked my classroom neighbor (who happens to also be the football and basketball coach) to come through our inner-classroom door and help me. Once again it was breached. Obviously the brace is not an effective jam.
4. Smaller class sizes: What is the most effective tool in any teacher's classroom management toolbox? Relationships. Who is it that is generally able to get through to an upset or out of control student the fastest? The teacher with the best relationship. Example: for a couple of years I had in my class the fighter for one of the larger gangs in our school/area. He wasn't a large young man but he was tough, strong and on at least a couple different steroids. When this student got involved in a fight even the larger male teachers in our school wouldn't intervene, it was too dangerous, but I always did and I never got hurt. As soon as I stepped into his vision and grabbed his arm this student would stand down and let me move him away--even though he knew I was taking him straight to the sheriff liaison officer's office and my first call would be to his parole officer. Why? We never did figure that out but as best we can tell I was the first teacher to take time to build a relationship with him and tell him he was intelligent and could learn. Smaller class sizes may not seem to be directly connected to school safety but smaller class sizes means more teacher-student time, which means better relationships, which leads to greater trust, which means teachers are more likely to see, hear, sense and be told when something isn't quite right.
5. Less high stakes testing: I am not saying this because I think poorly performing schools should be allowed to continue as they are or because I desire less accountability for my profession. I am saying this because school has become extremely stressful and that stress is harming our students. Every year I am required to give four different standardized tests to my students, some of them more than once, costing me almost eight weeks of education time (nearly 25% of the school year). Every year I have multiple students in tears and at least one who physically gets sick from the stress of it all, not to mention the pressure that is put on me knowing that my students' scores on these tests play a huge role in my evaluation and continued employment and compensation. Let's reduce the stress, improve mental health in general and enjoy greater security as a result.
6. Metal detectors & bag scanners: I spent four years walking into a school with metal detectors & bag scanners (teachers weren't required to have our bags scanned, only students and visitors). I don't miss it and am not eager to return to such a situation; but it does help to improve security and I would much rather return to this state of affairs than have to carry a weapon myself.
7. Armed security: I, and most teachers I talk to, are not opposed to having guns in our schools--we're just opposed to having untrained or barely trained civilians carrying them. A previous school I worked for had a sheriff's liaison officer that was at our school every day and carried his weapon at all times. We thought he was great--he hung out at security every morning, walked the halls during the day, talked to the kids at lunch and was another strong male role model in our building. He also worked very hard and was very successful--without ever drawing his weapon. He built relationships with students and could sometimes talk a student down when no one else could, but he also wasn't afraid to put a student on the floor and restrain him/her if necessary. If you want to put guns in our schools put them in the hands of uniformed police officers or build a security force with retired military personnel. In other words: if you give us guns give us the trained hands to hold them too---and we want them in a uniform of some kind.
As I said in the beginning, this isn't the type of post I normally write and I don't claim to hold the magic key to end all school violence. I am just a teacher who needed to express some unfamiliar and uncomfortable emotions in a safe and constructive way. I don't know that anyone else will listen or care about what I've had to say but at least I accomplished one thing---I do feel better and today was a less emotional day. I'm sure tomorrow will be better and each day following will be even easier still. I pray the improvement is never interrupted by another violent event in one of our schools but will not let the fear of another such event keep me from doing what I love--teaching my students.