I culled the following data from this source (which includes school and other mass shootings from all over the world):
https://www.infoplease.com/us/crime/timeline-worldwide-school-and-mass-s...
In the 22 years from 1996-2017 there have been 65 school shootings in the US (K-12 and colleges), an average of 2.96 per year. 190 students (and others) were killed, an average of 8.6 per year. There is no obvious trend. The three worst years were 1999 (Columbine), 2007 (Virginia Tech), 2012 (Sandy Hook). All the years since Sandy Hook have been below average except for 2015 when 10 were killed (above the average of 8.6).
The CDC reports that in 2015, 2,333 teens ages 16-19 were killed and over 200,000 were treated in emergency rooms from car crashes. This is 271 TIMES the average yearly deaths from school shootings (but note it is not the total number of K-12 and college student deaths from car crashes; however, most school shootings are in high schools).
My point is that students are hundreds of times more likely to be killed in cars than schools. This is not to dismiss the seriousness of the school shooting problem; we should do whatever we can to stop them (and the ones in Europe and elsewhere as well). It is also clear that most teachers will *never* be in the position to take a bullet for their students.
Wouldn't it be better to inform students how rare these shootings really are? Especially when compared to other much larger risks they face?
Also, according to the CDC, there were 772 drug overdose deaths among teens ages 15-19 in 2015, an increase of 19% over 2014, and about 2500 suicides in the same age group--also on the increase.
And, once again I'm not saying that school shootings aren't a problem. Students and teachers want to feel safe in their schools. Statistics can help.
Things must change.
1
There is little chance that guns will be outlawed anytime soon as some people here suggest. But there are other simple changes that could easily be done in schools NOW. Classrooms could have lockable, bulletproof doors or lockable closets where students and teachers could hide. There could be alarm systems in schools that would go off in the event of a shooter and the same system could inform the police that an attack was going on. Simple technological changes like these would make schools safer whether or not we make any progress on guns, and reduce the chance that a teacher will have to take a bullet for students.
Getting shot is not part of the labor union contract. That would be the job of the school's safety officer. Teachers' unions are not speaking up, inexplicably.
4
Teachers are the least paid of our white collar professions.
And now they are asked to pay the ultimate price. Without any compensation.
They should go to Europe. Respect. Better pay. Civilized society. No guns.
Why should anyone volunteer to be a target when the public just does not support them with either pay or protection?
9
The world stands with the victims and their families and friends. It is simply outrageous that this very saddening event should occur periodically in schools throughout the USA. It is a matter of gun control, it is a matter of tightening control or banning outright assault weapons - they are simply designed to kill. We weep and hope for change with you.
5
My husband and I have been having this conversation for several years now. I hate every part of it. He’s the most chivalrous man I have ever met, and won’t think twice about putting someone else’s well being above his own. He’s a social studies teacher in a rural high school where there’s already been a knife attack this school year. We live in the next town over, which hasn’t had as many problems and has a very involved community where people are always watching out and reporting anything the slightest bit suspicious, and the police follow up and investigate promptly.
The concern in any school is real, but this article just described my worst nightmare. For while I’m always concerned for my girls’ well being, it’s worrying about their father’s safety that keeps me up at night.
4
The Second Amendment confers a right to bear arms. The fundamental nature of a right is the freedom to choose; if I have a right to do something I'm free to choose to do it. But, equally, although this doesn't receive much emphasis, I'm free to choose not to do it. in terms of the Second Amendment, this means that US citizens are free to choose to bear arms; they are similarly free to choose not to bear arms. If the government cannot prohibit the bearing of arms then it equally cannot mandate the bearing of arms; to do either would directly conflict with the Second Amendment right of its citizens.
Teachers, as US citizens, have the same Second Amendment right as everyone else, and thus cannot be forced to bear arms. They cannot be armed against their will.
On this reading, arguments about the efficacy, or lack thereof, of arming teachers, are irrelevant. The choice to arm teachers is, simply, not one that is open to the government.
4
My high-schooler wants to be a teacher and interns 3 days a week in an elementary school. While it's bad enough they do active shooter drills in her high school, It breaks her heart to see third graders having to go through the same and she has started to question if this is the environment she wants to work in all her life. No teacher should have to feel the wonderful work they do puts their life at risk, daily. We need change, we need the strictest possible controls on guns and guns availability.
6
I asked my daughter ( 26 year old teacher in Virginia) what she would do and she said she would do what she had to do but she also said, would I be brave enough? She also said, we are expected to keep safe our students when our government can’t take steps to shield schools from weapons that kill so many in seconds. I questioned her on what the school’s policy is on code red. I had her go thru the steps. She teaches in a trailer next to the school so she said she feels more vulnerable because the security guys are in the main building. Seriously, my daughter has to think about this?
4
School and public shootings are a symptom. No one seems to seems to be talking about the root cause--the promotion and glorification of violence and killing in the media (television and movies) and video games. Guns do no load themselves, arrive at public places and begin shooting and killing people. Individuals do.
Individuals have become desensitized to the killing from watching media (so called action movies) and playing video games that glorify violence and killing. Eight of the top 10 selling video games in the U.S. for 2017 glorify killing. The more people you kill, the higher levels you attain in the game. Now there are even virtual reality glasses to make it appear more life like.
What is the difference to someone who has just killed 200 people an hour earlier playing a virtual reality video game, and walking into a public place and start shooting. People are becoming numb to the sanctity of life. This is the conversation we need to be having. No amount of restrictions will stop people from getting guns, but if the media stops glorifying violence and killing through television, movies, and video games, perhaps they will be less likely to use them for public killings.
3
Banning guns by law won't help, since shooters don't care about laws in the first place. All it does is leave law-abiding citizens defenseless.
Show me these teachers demanding permission to carry guns, NYT. Your link showed me teachers who asked their representative for help, and his response that new gun restrictions aren't necessary, but he'll sure as summer write a bill to enable them to carry weapons in the classroom.
1
Teacher’s Arithmetic
22 books for 34 students
12 students with IEP’s
3 with 504 plans
34 desks-5 need repairs
Four windows
One drafty
Three-wide enough
Wide enough to push students through
Classroom door is thick-natural wood
The glass panel is about 11 inches in length 8 inches in width
This opening makes us vulnerable
One metal teacher's desk
Can be pushed against the door in five seconds
Eight cabinets for science supplies
(Store the supplies elsewhere)
This is Prime Hiding space for maybe nine
25 left
Two with special physical needs-they don't move so fast
Seven with severe trauma-they won't settle down in chaos
We practice
Once every three months-shelter in place
Once a month-fire drills
Twice a month-intruder drills
68 eyes on me
Two adult hands I fight to keep from shaking
Silent division
Keep the babes with ASD close to me
They scream when they hear alarms, screaming or sirens
Two gumdrops per mouth keeps them quiet
34 students
One classroom
Two light switches-off
One prayer-in the darkness
Keep Away from the door
Keep Away from the door
34 students
68 parents
Ten seconds to get this right….five, four, three, two…
Who will care for my two children if I don't?
15
9/11, Virginia Tech.... Been there - done that -- been in school in the classroom those days that is. Interestingly when I reassured my college students that these things did not happen all the time and would not happen to them... and asked if they thought their teacher should be armed -- the answer was a resounding NO. (Interesting.. because even tho I think the nation should disarm on all fronts.. -- Iraq. the police, private citizens... I can see having trained personnel in every school capable of shooting the shooter. It would not offend me one bit.
Should teachers and students go out on strike until our pathetic politicians get the courage to pass needed legislation to exercise some control over these lethal weapons. Teachers should not have to make the choice of their life or the students life or become armed guards. They did not sign up for that.
3
Good grief. Has our country degenerated so far that this is now what teachers have to think about 24 hours a day? It is hard enough to teach and keep coming up with creative lesson plans without worrying like this. Teachers are professionals but even the best teacher is going to spread his worry to the class. They are also worried. This does not make for a good learning environment. Add the ridiculous amount of worthless testing, unnecessary paper work to keep administrators happy and the low pay and bad working conditions and no wonder there is a national shortage of teachers.
When will politicians develop some spine and stand up for the rights of people who don't want to get shot? The NRA spreads fear to get people to purchase more guns. "Protect yourself from the bad guys." The US has 4% of the world's population and nearly half of the guns belonging to civilians. THERE ARE TOO MANY GUNS EASILY AVAILABLE FOR ANYONE TO BUY AT ANY TIME. The result is massive amounts of deaths. Nothing will change until
"We the people" decide we've had enough. It is way past time for this country to admit there is a problem and force politicians to do something about it. Vote those who won't stand up to the NRA out of office.
3
No one wants to be shot at, and not even trained first responders, will always be able to stop a determined shooter. There will also always be violent or out-of-control kids, and teachers always need other trained adults, including school psychologists, behavior specialists, vice principals, and school police officers to help manage students who don't even have guns. Teachers and students are trained through fire drills, lock downs, and evacuation practice a few times during the year, but none of that is adequate when firearms are involved. In addition to better front door security and background checks, we also need to reduce guns in our society and monitor who can own them. I wonder if we have a way of getting guns back from those who may have purchased them legally, but should not have them anymore? Teachers aren't human shields; teachers and students need to learn in safe environments. Banning assault weapons from civilian sale, and enforcing gun control laws is a step in the right direction. Let's try whatever will work to reduce murders and mass shootings in the U.S.
1
Wow, what a change from the usual Times coverage of teachers, which for the most part presents them as hidebound wards of strong unions who need a kick from the new breed of business men turned school administrators. Thank you for realizing and writing: "As if the mounting pressures of test scores and email messages to parents and bus duty and hall duty and new certifications and all those meetings wasn’t enough.'
2
Gun rights trump kid's rights.
America's gun proponents support gun rights over school children's civil and human rights.
In 2018 the 2nd amendment is anachronistic perversity that only serves cowards, bullies, the bloodthirsty and greedy. It's a sick reflection of the desire to rule the world not through intellectual and spiritual brilliance but through coarse threats of violence against the youthful and studious and peaceful unarmed.
The right to bear arms should never be allowed to trump the right to free speech, freedom of assembly and free movement, but it has to a large extent in the USA, that is embracing state sanctioned gun tyranny and its resulting home grown violence over freedom and the rights of the peaceful unarmed.
Besides marching on Washington our students should also request a special human rights hearing at the United Nations as America's do nothing Congress and President and State Legislators don't have our kids backs. Our lawmakers want to normalize random American carnage as the cost of "freedom", what oxymorons.
3
The Monday after Sandy Hook I stood in front of a class of third grade students and tried to reassure them that they were safe at school, and I would do everything I could do to protect them if anything did ever happen. No matter how calm and convincing I tried to sound, I could see doubt, and rightfully so. Every educator I know would do everything in their power to keep their students safe from harm-including shielding them from bullets. But with each new mass shooting, with each "thought and prayer" from cowardly politicians, I know that those students, now in middle school, as well as any student old enough to comprehend what is now almost commonplace in our country, must surely believe that they could be the next victims.
The incredibly articulate and brave young people form Stoneman Douglas who are now speaking so clearly to all of us should be heard and heeded. Enough! No teacher should have to wake up thinking about the possiblility of giving their very life protecting their students from a crazed gunman. And no child should ever feel that their very life is simply collateral damage in order to protect someone's "right" to own a weapon designed for one purpose-to be a killing machine.
9
We have all this hand wringing (some of which is understandable) over comparatively rare events. If teachers and students want to feel safe in their schools, why isn't somebody telling them that they are much more likely to die, or be seriously injured, in an automobile accident--especially when the driver is a teen. Other similar comparisons could me made.
The New York Times claims their mission is to "educate and inform" their readers. Well, this is one case where politics has clearly taken precedence over that supposed mission. When Trump wanted a "Muslim ban" the media quite properly pointed out how much more likely it was to be killed by "X" than to be killed in a terrorist incident.
Where are those voices now? It would help comfort our children--at least on the issue of school shootings.
Admittedly, I'm no psychologist, but if I were guessing, I'd guess that experts would frown upon an approach that says, "Hey, don't think about that absolutely horrifying event that just occurred and probably won't occur again for a week or so, and instead, think about all of these horrible things that happen ALL THE TIME."
1
So relatively speaking, school shootings aren’t a big deal?
1
I'm not talking about this most recent shooting: those students actually experienced the real deal, and they need a different kind of help. I'm talking about all the *other* schools and students in the country who have a very near zero chance of experiencing the same thing--and a much, much greater chance of suffering or dying from the much, much more common tragedies that we don't even give much thought too. Yet they are terrified of school shootings. I'm talking about trying to help them by putting the risk in proper perspective.
Notice I specifically mentioned "the issue of school shootings," not just this particular shooting. Regardless of what you think of gun control, don't you see that students *everywhere* are now having their fears exploited by the media and politicians?
The NRA must be met with a stronger national group, perhaps called the American Sensible Gun Law Organization (ASGLO). Create a governing body, invite membership, and raise money to help promote and support legislators who are willing to stand up to the cowardice we see so prevalently in Congress and the Senate. To help counter money given to assault weapon enablers. To help counter NRA ads which might target the few brave in our government. We know how effective social media can be. It is time to protect our children. We know how to do it.
i would try to do whatever I could to protect my students but I would not become a human shield. I have my own family to think about.
Add it to the list of reasons that teaching has become one of the worst jobs ever.
9
Maybe rather than continuing to risk their lifes, teachers could more productively unite nationally to close down schools if significant gun laws are not enacted. As with Vietnam or gay marriage, even legislators listen when it affects their children.
5
When it comes to safety, I believe teachers--and all adults--are bound by en loco parentis: to act "in place of the parent." If teachers do not want to fulfill that responsibility, that is fine, but they should stop being teachers. Likewise, the government should provide significant aid to protect the safety of students and teachers, so it does not fail in its responsibility. The government needs to take significant steps to protect our schools. It is wrong to ask teachers to perform their noble work without fulfilling our responsibility to them and to their students.
Do you know a lot of parents that have 20 or 30 kids they have to protect at the same time? No? Then don't talk as though it's even remotely reasonable to act as though dying should be a teacher's required job function.
2
You are right, dying should not be a part of a teacher's job. I agree with that statement. That's why we need to work together to protect schools from these attacks. One way would be to ban assault rifles.
2
On the afternoon of the FL shootings. I spent most of the afternoon with my back to the brick wall of my classroom, in a lock-down practice, sitting next to the young graduate student that is my mentee. I watched her eyes grow big when we could hear the footsteps coming down the hallway, mimicking the path of a shooter. I saw her shudder and shake when the play shooter rattled our door and tried to open it. I watched a few tears come down her face when the State Police came bursting in the door and released us. I prepped her and she is ready. I am, too. No politician came to talk to me about test scores that day. My new, weird Millennial boss did not blather on and on about data that day, and no parent whined about stupid stuff that day. Again, I promised my students this one thing: When you're in my class, we ALL go home every day, and I mean it. I am so glad some people in the classroom that we call this world are finally getting what we teachers knew all along: This job ain't (sic) easy, and it ain't (sic) for the faint-hearted. Get out of my way, ban assault, automatic and semi-automatic weapons today, and let me do my job without your constant political meddling!
12
I was 61 y/o when Virginia Tech happened. I read about a professor who acted as a human shield. Next day I walked into my first class at the University of Florida and talked to the students. This is what we will do if there's an incident.
1
NRA people saying that we need to arm teachers are ridiculous in so many ways. Do these people really think that young people will continue to choose teaching as a profession if being "locked and loaded" becomes part of the job description? We already have problems recruiting excellent teachers since we refuse to pay them decently. Now the NRA wants them to add to their workloads by taking on the jobs of law enforcement and mental health counselor? It'd be laughable if it weren't so disgusting.
14
i am a grandfather now, but teachers are hired to teach, not to be human shields for other people's kids. the politicians talk and talk, but they are not even trying to help solve the problem. all they want is the money to be re-elected. many are quitting because they are fed up with this administration and the corruption in our nation's capital. i do not blame them.
10
Trump rightly praised first responders and medical personnel for their actions during and after the massacre. Yet nary a whisper of praise for the valiant teachers who put their bodies in the line of fire to shield their students, nor for the many other teachers and administrators who locked down their rooms and kept the death toll from becoming even larger. Wonder why? It seems Republicans can't stray from their talking points that public school teachers are the problem and the Betsy DeVos mantra that only for-profit charter schools employing a non-union labor force can save education--inspite of numerous compelling demonstrations to the contrary.
Here in Eugene, Oregon we've had one would-be shooter killed by a heroic campus police officer before he could breach the doorway, and several bomb and shooting threats thwarted by students and teachers whose tips to administrators led to police intervention before a crisis. Yet, we all know the cracks are wide, the guns are out there, and that any day a disturbed or angry person could slip through our defenses and frustrate our lock down precautions.
Re-implementing the assault rifle ban and closing the loop holes in background check procedures would be a good start, as would a massive shaming of the NRA's shills in Congress, the White House, and state legislatures. Heart felt thanks to the student activists from Parkland High. They've already inspired students and parents across the country. May we all heed their calls.
14
An individual teacher might make such a choice - that's her/his decision. But we shouldn't EXPECT such actions from teachers... any more than we should EXPECT, e.g., ushers in movie theatres or clergy in a house of worship to "take a bullet" for any one of us.
12
There is no way to guarantee that so-called gun free school zones will ever be gun free.
The only realistic option is to make them gun-safe by issuing concealed carry permits to teachers that choose to be responsible for protecting students from deadly weapons with their own deadly weapons.
1
It will be obvious who these teachers are that are armed. Next time there is an incident with an unruly student(s), do you honestly think that having a gun in a classroom could not lead to a catastrophic incident related to that same gun?
The answer to gun violence, is not more guns.
Teachers do protect students in their care, but having a loaded gun as a supposed backup for the bad guy with a gun, is a fantasy that will only end in more heartache.
4
"Teachers that choose to be responsible for protecting students from deadly weapons," excuse me that would make them centurions, cops or soldiers, not teachers.
5
Perhaps teachers should receive some sort of combat pay such as GIs do, in those jurisdictions where the ownership of assault rifles is permitted.
9
Sure, let Teachers be human shields, they Certainly are paid to do so. Right, GOP??? New NRA slogan: bring out your dead and more guns.
5
Let’s get some reporting from countries with strict gun laws, and normal public safety. The teachers there don’t have to worry about protecting their kids from death every day. Their families don’t have to worry, will they come home that evening, or will they be murdered?
I wouldn't blame teachers for quitting en masse now. They didn't train to be teachers to be a front line army against what is really domestic terrorism.
Our media must start exposing how abnormal America is compared to other civilized countries. These shootings at schools, churches, work places, night clubs, etc are domestic terrorist attacks on our citizens. Yet the GOP has prohibited the Center for Disease Control from researching and compiling statistics on our gun violence epidemic, and help divise plans to combat it. This is censorship that our rw GOP has no problem with.
The NRA/gun maker money in US politics, and the censorship of information that exposes the extent and pattersn of our extreme gun violence would not be tolerated in any other democracy in the world.
To NYTimes---it's past time for your international reporters and columnists to write on how even rw parties abroad support strong gun laws. What has formed their attitudes, vs those of the US?
Also start interviewing and publicizing US gun owners and even NRA members who want stricter gun laws. Our media needs to give them wide coverage. This can help build the necessary resistance to our deadly system.
9
I am a teacher. And I refuse to accept the role of a human shield.
21
I am a teacher at an urban school and I know we all must feel the same way -- angry and sick, and hopeless at this point. I am sick that anyone thinks we have some secret way to "know" a kid is going to turn from troubled to a killer – were we trained as psychiatrists? And do we even have any power to do anything when we DO think a kid might be dangerous? Is our country providing adequate mental health coverage for everyone?
I am so exhausted to hear about "beefed up security" at a school, as if someone with a military assault rifle will somehow be deterred from getting into a building with a locked door, and shooting many people dead in minutes, before any “teacher” or anyone else who is armed can respond. Are we now supposed to be trained as snipers, too?
I am sick that craven, cowardly politicians with bloody hands who believe they can do “nothing” to stop gun violence are holding out the laurel of “hero” to teachers who died -- Did the teachers who died really have another option? This country should be ashamed of their inaction, not proud of our deaths.
We allow anyone to purchase a dangerous weapon. How is this NOT the problem?
17
This is the sad state of U.S. -- where the adults in Congress and the White House are acting like children while our children are acting like adults.
13
Iam a Vietnam veteran, a solid member of the 60s, and a retired teacher with 27 years teaching high school English.
Just love seeing the masses of dear, Portland high school students take
To the streets and invade the halls of power to demonstrate and demand that assault rifles be banned from the sale to any person.These students should continue to demonstrate, demonstrate and demonstrate mor for their right to finish their high school careers without the threat of gun violence.
The 60s street demonstrations helped convince Lyndon Baines Johnson not to quit the presidency because of his Vietnam War; and the continued massive student protest helped to end that war.
Now, The students at Marjory Stoneman High School can for hopefully force the politicians inTallahasse to concede that the time is ripe to permanently ban the sell of assault rifles.
Continue to demonstrate until the law is passed. These public high students are carry the torch for all public high school students across the nation for their right to start and finish high school without the threat of gun violence.
Marjory Stoneman High School students are demonstrating civics in action!
10
A disruptive idea is to create a fund with a gun-supported funding source (the NRA comes to mind) to pay for a Mr. T meet Mr. Rogers type older adult assigned to each teacher to keep everyone safe/supported/ready to respond. Teachers won’t be burdened with the fear of fulfilling their heroic role in a crisis, kids will gain a caring adult in their lives and the older adult would have gainful employment and a purpose. Cost 24-45B a year.
1
Man, I hope you're being snarky. Sadly, I'm afraid you might not be.
As a teacher at the middle and high school level, I always knew my role included shielding the students from harm. I signed an oath to protect. And I knew I served in place of their parents -- in so far as the safety of the students dictated.
Any parent would protect their child. I did for the students what I would do for my own children.
When confronted by ammunition in the classroom -- did a student in the room possess a pistol? I dealt.
When a student threatened another with a knife, I dealt.
When one student had another against a wall and hammered the face of that student with his fist, I stopped it. ( And I believe I was discharged from that school for a violent interaction with that student. )
When a bomb warning came to the front desk, the administrators ordered the evacuation of the school. Per their protocol, they left the building. First.
I told the students to leave via the shortest route. I scanned the immediate area for bombs. I determined the most likely place for the concealment of a pipe bomb might be a plastic trash container full of bottles, food, papers. As the students filed out, I put my body between that plastic trash container and the students.
The police bomb personnel did not find a bomb. Threats are cheap. I knew a threat to be most likely nothing. But I believe I dealt with the situation as required.
Good teachers will not surrender to fear. Or administrator protocol. They will protect the students. Regardless.
3
Upon the recession, I gained a certificate to teach secondary English and ELL, and attempted to enter teaching through the "highly recommended" avenue of substitute teaching.
In tremendous coincidence, I spent one afternoon in an extremely hard-to-get substitute orientation in one of this country's most affluent school districts, as the horror of Sandyhook happened to rage on unbeknownst to those of us seated within that presentation.
I never ended up with my own classroom and have since moved on workwise, however an honest concern for overall safety was a guiding factor therein when I entered every job following that orientation wondering if that day would be my last in an environment where "visiting/guest teachers" get no classroom key, get little contact or support from existing/neighboring teachers, and too often get very little respect and cooperation from students, as I was not "a real teacher."
In one elementary room, a book--"Mrs Todd is Odd"--was on a desk: the plot of which concerned a substitute teacher and a student "investigation" into the speculation that the sub murdered--yes, murdered--the regular teacher in order to have her job.
Violence not discriminate and unfortunately can occur on days when there are substitute teachers in schools. How do schools and parents intend to protect students in an emergency when a certified adult standing in for their teacher for the day cannot even be seen as trustworthy under even the most ordinary of circumstances?
3
As Trump and his White House enjoy the `reprieve' (WaPost) parents bury their dead children.
4
Overworked, Underpaid, now John Wayne stance at OK Corral? Ridiculous.....
9
Students should walk out of school and not return until assault rifles are banned.
10
This is one reasons why more and more upper middle class secular folks of all races and regions of the U.S. began homeschooling their kids over the past decade and certainly since Newtown. There are no stops whatsoever on guns and young men who rage and rampage in public places.
2
There are very few of us who know how we would react in a life and death situation. To minimize the risks that make our country look as if it is a shooting gallery, we need to ban assault rifles...period. No civilian should have any weapon with a high capacity magazine. This is just obvious for starters.
As for a better mental health screening process, that costs money to train people to recognize when people are potentially going off the rails. In schools, it is the student population who know much more than the staff about who may be a risk. Teachers and administrators must develop ways of allowing students to give them information and air their concerns, while protecting their privacy.
First, take the military style weapons off the market; second educate the educators and students.
7
I am a teacher and of course I would give my life for theirs. You would also hope that my actions would help better the situation. However, with the assault rifle my sacrifice may not even make a difference in the student I am trying to protect or others. That's not to say I would ever hesitate to protect them.
6
Perhaps even more dangerous (?) than guns, is the soul-killing, democracy-killing, effect of doing nothing...of throwing up our hands, shrugging our shoulders, and saying, "Well, yes, it's a terrible problem, but there's nothing that can be done." Maybe such a reaction is, for many, a coping mechanism born of emotional fatigue, which is understandable. But I believe this kind of apathy, malaise, and/or willful helplessness has a pernicious (and clearly deadly) effect on a democratic republic--to the extent where we will end up with something that looks democratic from the outside, but is, in reality, a weird form of oligarchy or dictatorship on the inside. Perhaps enacting even one, tiny, imperfect (nothing will ever be perfect but that doesn't mean we can't TRY) piece of gun-control legislation would break the dam of inertia that has built up over the last 20 years (or more) on any number of the life-or-death issues we face as a nation. My students and I talked about this today. Yes, I teach. And I don't want to have to take a bullet for any of my students. Being a teacher gives me plenty of other opportunities to test my heroism and nobility without adding "human shield" to the mix.
7
This line of thinking is totally unconscionable, that teachers on a daily basis now have to think about saving their students in the event of a school shooting... Have we completely lost our minds in the USA? What a sick sick sick sick country!
12
I taught public high school for 34 years. That ended several years ago and the halls are more dangerous today, but, human shields? Come on! We have a duty to protect our kids. I never knew one teacher who refused to take that charge seriously. Trump and Congress failing to do their part makes this job more difficult. Arming teachers is dumbest idea I've heard this week, but it's only Tuesday. Fifty-six year old Mrs. Pratt with a Glock? More security guards? Really? Better mental health screening? Got more money for it? It's the guns! The best defense is the students. I was involved in two gun incidents, both in my room. A kid had an HK in the back of his jeans, locked and loaded. The principals came and took him out. A girl (unusual) with a loaded revolver in a back pack with intent to shoot another girl for flirting with her boyfriend. A student tip led me to get the gun from her by convincing her he wasn't worth it. It's not metal detectors, security guards, armed staff and/or prayer. It's too many damned guns!
16
This is insane. This is a conversation that shouldn't even be happening. Teachers being shot for their students? Children being murdered in classrooms? Children at even young ages doing "active shooter" drills?
This. Is. Insane.
I'll put it clearly: The NRA is a terrorist organization. The Republican party aids and abets domestic terrorism.
Enough!
11
Start suing the crud out of gun manufacturers, as well as those who produce these young males - and all criminals.
KK from Seattle has it correctly...BAN ASSAULT WEAPONS...Why is there even a discussion on this!
We must vote out any elected official taking funds from the NRA. Members of the NRA must take responsibility for these murders. They support policies and administrators who caused this problem. Look in your mirrors NRA members to see the real culprits and DO SOMETHING
8
I'm sure Republicans and their NRA enablers are even now preparing responses for the inevitable next shooting tragedies that they have permitted to flourish.
"Our thoughts and prayers...our prayers and thoughts, we're praying and thinking of the victims...guns don't kill, people kill...it's the FBI's fault, bullets don't kill, people kill...you can't live forever?"
4
The kids who are mobilizing have parents from both parties. I hope their efforts succeed completely.
Now, NYT, publish a list of everyone who's running for or holds office who got or gets money from the NRA and the amount. Then, electorate, vote those folks out of office, and hello D.A.'s, indict these elected goons for every shooting with an automatic or semi-automatic weapon.
That should do it . . .
5
This is not about party, fran. This is about a civil, safe society. WE should all want that and do all we can to make it so.
I agree entirely . . . this is definitely not a partisan issue . . that is why this effort from our kids in our schools needs our entire support.
Teachers should absolutely not be expected to act as human shields. Why should they? They have their own families to support and children to raise.
11
School is hard enough as it is without teachers having to worry or ponder if they would take a bullet to save a student if such a scenario happened in their school. My two sisters are high school teachers and they said they would like to think they would automatically put their lives on the line for their kids, but every day, they pray like heck they will never be put to the test. Their biggest challenge and hope is each of their students graduates.
2
A news program reported there's a white board that's bulletproof. Teachers can hang it on the wall to use during normal times. In the event of an active shooter, the teacher takes it off the wall and uses it to shield students. The commentator said, "That's a good idea." No! It's crazy that teachers should have to buy bulletproof whiteboards to shield their students from a murderer. This conversation is absurd. Get rid of the guns instead of suggesting teachers buy bulletproof items.
7
Not a teacher here. But the parent of two kids who went through school systems in NYC. I know it's been covered - but perhaps not to the extent it needs to be. The teachers at Marjory Stoneman Douglas performed heroically. Some lost their lives. Ditto at Columbine and Newtown. The topic of this story is of extreme importance - but so is the fact that teachers, their job security and their union's actions have continually been blamed as examples of everything wrong with America. For every teacher who ends up in "the rubber room" still taking salary despite incompetence, there are hundreds - probably thousands like those at MSD High, who bring passion to teaching and now - even put their lives on the line for other people's kids. Take a moment to thank your child's teachers. They could use the support.
7
Would this president or US representative in Congress that has received funding from the NRA take a bullet for our children? We have lost our moral compass and I thank these youth in Parkland for raising their voices in rage against what we have become as a nation.
9
This may be the saddest article I've ever read. As the daughter of NYC high school teachers and a retired Texas teacher myself, I cannot adequately express the grief I feel that our schools are no longer safe. On the local evening news last night, the superintendent of a small nearby district talked about the need to permit teachers to carry concealed weapons in school. Wait! Stop! Just imagine the implications when school administrators in normal tones of voice propose that teachers carry loaded weapons to school. Is this what we've come to? Will this become the norm? Will every person seeking certification soon be required to take a course in "Teacher as First Responder: How to survive a terrorist attack in the classroom and save students"? Is this reasonable? Will arming the lunch lady come next? Get my drift? Our schools are under seige, made vulnerable to homegrown terrorist attacks because politicians are afraid of the NRA (whose message is now being promoted by Russian bots). This makes no sense. It never occurred to my father, my mother or me that we might be called upon to shoot an intruder or die protecting our students from one. And that is as it should be. Our schools and other public spaces should be places where we can go freely about our business without fear. Arming the populace is not the solution. Outlawing the sale of assault weapons across the board is a necessary first step, and is long overdue. Safe, gun free schools are what our children deserve.
5
I'm university faculty so maybe that makes all the difference, but I would never, ever, "take a bullet" for my students. I have my own children to protect and defend, they must come first. Of course it's horrendous to have to consider the issue, but to borrow a mantra from law enforcement: "I'm going home tonight to my family." Heroes go home in body bags.
7
This is one of the saddest discussions I have read I work in inner city schools in Toronto. I do psychological testing of children and travel from school to school. I too have thought about these issues and came to the conclusion that of course I would have to give my life to save any of the children in the schools where I work - because they are children.
I am immensely sad that teachers should even have to suffer this fear, leave alone the children. The solutions seem obvious to me.
Norma
1
I live in Kansas. My teaching career included teaching at a high school, then at a community college. After I retired, the Kansas Legislature legalized open carry on college campuses. Legislators are now working on a bill that would allow 18-year-olds to get permits to carry a gun. The legal age is now 21. I'm glad I retired when I did. However, several of my family members are employed by colleges or are college students. I worry constantly about shooters taking them out. As a teacher, I don't know what i would have done if someone had come into my classroom with a gun. If I were teaching at a community college in Kansas now, anyone could come in a gun and there would be no way to tell what that person's intent was. When will this insanity end?
6
Teaching is the noblest of professions. Over past decade or so we have seen many teachers give much of themselves so our kids can learn and feel safe. Teaching is a call to a lifetime of stimulating young minds and being there for each and every student.
Why teachers are often maligned is a puzzle. More puzzling is why any community or state would stop funding schools and cutting teacher pay and benefits.
1
The elites' rules favor the rights of the 1% of students who disrupt school classrooms, hallways, and playfields over the rights of teachers and 99% of students to have an orderly, safe, and disciplined educational regime. Change those rules!
Expel the 1% disruptors and triage them into suitable mental health/rehab regimes for treatment. Red flag (profile) individuals considered dangerous for special evaluation and remediation. And post security st school entrances to restrict access to students in good standing. Train a volunteer cadre of teachers in tactical defense against active shooters and develop a defense action plan, like fire drills. Teachers can multi-task to defend the lives of their students, just like everyone else. Nothing simple - just pragmatic...
3
This country has glorified that 1 to 2% of predatory boys and men ever since the 1970s.
None of these school shootings since the 1980s are understandable. None of these killers are nor mentally ill nor psychotic. They know full well what they are doing and why. They are an extreme of the population living up to the fullest the definition of masculinity that American men have formed, just as there is the polar opposite toxic definition of femininity that has eroded the sense of self among our daughters. We are at the beginning of the end days of the 2000-year-old patriarchy that's crumbling in fits and starts. Wherever there are the strongest influences of those ancient desert peasant cults, we see cowards visiting horror and violence upon the vulnerable, especially women and children. Sadly, we instruct with our entertainment media how to be a vicious rapist and killer, we reward these males in life and in death, we make endless excuses for them and for those who breed them. No one forces these males to be predators, to amass an arsenal and slaughter the helpless.
When it comes to teachers shielding students from bullets, when they ought earn battle pay the way Pentagon Inc. soldiers do, then a society and culture must examine how it raises its boys and what is considered acceptable behaviors even at the earliest ages. America must change or just go ahead and prepare to build more prisons and bury more dead, not fewer, should we actually get serious about public safety.
I am a retired teacher at the elementary level, and I cared deeply for my students. Why should young people be subjected to the fear of being killed while in school? Why should teachers even be thinking of what to do in the event of a school shooting? There needs to be gun legislation to ban assault rifles, bump stock, etc. No one needs them; their only purpose is to kill as many people as possible as quickly as possible. There also needs to be a procedure for background checks that is effective. And, any member of Congress who has received money from the NRA should be required to recuse himself or herself from any vote on this legislation.
1
I sort of know what this feels like. A year or two after the murder of 14 women, most of them, students at the Ecole Polytechnique, one of my students told me she was being stalked by an ex-boyfriend whom she had charged with assault. She told me he had said no woman was ever going to take him to court again and had not only threatened her, but smashed the windows in her car while it was parked in a university lot and chased her car into a ditch as she was driving to her home outside the city. I knew who he was and knew he had nearly killed his wife (but because he was respectable, ie a professor and thus a colleague of mine at the university, he served his sentence on weekends) and I knew he had guns. My classroom was an inside one, with no windows and only one door; the class met at night. The student had told me this in confidence so I could not tell the other students of what seemed to be a real possibility of danger (the Montreal shooting loomed large for us at that time). What was ethical in this situation? There was no other classroom available, even if that might have helped. Our university's head of security at that time did not take the issue seriously. My dean did, and every time I taught that class--which met at night--he, a middle aged man, patrolled the hallway until the end of the semester. One of us would have taken a bullet, if it had come to that. But I still don't know what the ethical solution would have been.
8
It would have been ethical to put the stalker in jail for his disordered, dangerous and threatening behavior.
4
A tragic but necessary conversation. No one can pretend to think that part of teaching now includes protecting their students in any way they can. And in any case, I would take a bullet for a child any day of the week.
1
Rush Limbaugh says kids should be allowed to bring concealed guns to school. All I can say is, the day anyone allows students, teachers, or anyone other than a trained cop to tote a gun to my school is the day I leave the teaching profession. Can you imagine? Kids holding teachers at gunpoint? The kid who insulted a child on the bus at gunpoint? The moody teenager who had a fight with his mother and is wants to take it out on the first kid he meets at school? The day guns enter schools is the day education ends. Common sense!
21
I agree. Where would the budget for training even come from? Half of us are spending thousands of our own money for curriculum materials!
5
Get your facts correct, rush did not say kids should concealed carry to school. He did say that the next shooter is already out there. And that the only rational way to address shooter risks is to allow teachers willing to defend their students against deadly weapons with deadly weapons is to allow their concealed carry.
Teachers should not be body guards or human shields. And I don't believe they should carry guns either; a crazed student could steal it and even locking it up doesn't make it safe. But, I do think social media and the 'bots' as well as those addicted to twitter is driving negative thinking, intolerance, and for some that leads to violence. Time to hold social media responsible, and time to stop the bots. I doubt that Russia is the only country that would love to see the US collapse.
7
I hope the kids persist in their crusade to the end and don't become content with the celebrity they're already receiving. Nothing is accomplished until legislation and effective legislation at that is made law and then you've got the problem of that Law actually being enforced, which just may be the trickiest part. I recall the Viet Nam protests which must have been as large and long as any protests in history. In spite of them, politicians managed to ignore the will of the people for decades before any motivations in them to honor the Peoples' will came to light. Not easing up on the pressure, and that includes the MSM to keep it front and center for longer than the token issue de jour, is the only way to motivate our politicians to do the right thing.
The 2nd amendment is wildly misinterpreted, and so is the role of teachers. They should not be catching bullets for students. Aside from the fact that they are likely to have families, and children, of their own to whom they owe it to stay alive, they are educators, not the first line of defense in our battle against the NRA's arming of lunatics and criminals. Teachers and the children they teach are not soldiers.
10
No one needs to own weapons of mass murder. Get rid of them and we promise to send our thoughts and prayers to those who lost their assault weapons.
13
I started teaching in 1968 and Retired in 2017. Most of those years I would never thought about such a thing as "shooter on campus". Today, I must admit, I am glad I no longer teach. The stress of all the responsibilities plus the stress of now being a first responder and a defender with only a body to block the bullets would be unbearable. On top of all of these jobs teachers pay has dropped to unbelievable lows.
My wife is a RN a very comparable career to teaching, low pay, long hours, little respect, great deal of education and training and a very strong emotional tie to our clients.
In 1968 my salary for the year was $5,000. My wife's salary was $5500 for the year. I made about $800 during the summer teaching Drivers Education.
In my highest year teaching I earned $55,000. She retired last year and made $88,000.
Teaching has always been low pay for a college degree job but it has continue to fall over the years. I don't think I could recommend it as a career for students.
Teachers when I went into the profession were head in high respect today not so much.
6
Why are shootings occurring in schools for crying out loud! There are enough attempts to diminish and destroy the quality and trust in education. This is scary. By God, we're going to take this country back from the xenophobes, the anti-science, anti-environment, pro-war crowd!!
2
Teachers were already heroes before they started having to be the first of the first responders. If nothing else is done to protect them and their students, at least give them the respect and support for what they do for students daily.
Because these are the people who will and do die for your children.
1
How can we leave teachers so horribly alone?
Planning to defend their students with a pair of sharp scissors -- No clear barricade strategy or plan -- Without first aid training -- No text message system for broadcasting warnings and instructions -- And on and on.
We can't pretend any longer that teachers don't need this support. It's an uncomfortable reality to face, but we can't avoid addressing it because it's hard to admit that it's our reality.
This is lunacy.
2
As the father and father in law of a married couple who both teach school, I reject the assumption that a teacher's role now includes being a "bodyguard and protector". My son and his wife joined the profession to teach. Soldiers, police officers, firemen and other first responders know they risk possible death or injury on the job, and they deserve our gratitude. However, not everyone is or wants to be a first responder. We must make schools safer, not ask educators to prepare themselves to die. Start by reducing the number of guns in the hands of people who perpetrate these attacks. A recent Times article cited a 2009 National Institute of Justice report estimating the number of firearms available to American civilians at around 310 million. I care much more about the safety of my family and their students, than about anyone having unfettered possession of guns. I favor any and all restrictions on firearm and ammunition possession that will keep them out of schools. There is precedent for repealing a constitutional amendment, and if it takes modifying or repealing the Second Amendment to accomplish this goal, then let's get stated. Enough Americans are heartsick over these repeated, unnecessary slaughters that if put to a ballot, repeal will succeed. My son and daughter in law should not be expected to be willing to put themselves between a gunman and their students, thereby making their son, my grandson, an orphan.
8
On June 10, 2009, close to 1 p.m., my son was chaperoning children at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC. At the end of the tour, about to exit, they were feet away from a white supremacist and Holocaust denier who entered the Museum through a door held open for him by Museum Police Officer Stephen Tyron Jones. Officer Jones was shot and killed by the armed intruder, and of it hadn't been for two other Special Police Officers stationed at the entrance who returned fire and wounded the killer, the school class - and my son - would have been next in line for the gunman.
My son is now a high school teacher. He loves to teach, but I am encouraging him to look for a less dangerous job.
3
I am a teacher. I don't have any problem with doing what I must to protect kids. I do have a problem with the reality that our society does not seem to care that teachers have to be first responders and be willing to lay down their lives because we have seemingly decided, as a nation, to allow our schools to be killing fields.
If we are going to ask teachers like me to be willing to make the ultimate sacrifice to protect the safety of kids, then we must be willing to accept that teachers need more training about how to confront armed individuals, how to best physically shield children, and how to prepare children for the possibility that the danger of a madman with a military grade weapon in the halls of a school is real.
We should also discuss whether it even makes sense that we tolerate AR-15-carrying individuals in our schools and what it says about a society when it is willing to allow the mass murder of young children in homage to some imagined "freedom" to carry weapons of war in places of learning.
8
Let’s not forget that some shooters have targeted teachers and professors specifically!
I used to teach young children. That was during the 70’s. But I never signed up teach in a war zone. I would not make a good martyr. I decided that in second grade, when the nun lined us up so we could practice in case the communists came, lined us up and told us they would shoot anyone who believed in God. (I was sure I would lie - to save my life.)
My spouse was a College Professor for many years. But when some students began to shoot professors, he feared that grading had become a risky activity. He was glad when he was no longer in danger.
We must end professional risk simply for doing your job!
My spouse follows the Spanish press, which interviewed a Spanish woman teaching at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. She is thinking of leaving - since the shooting. These things do not happen in Spain! It’s very hard to get a gun there.
We are an uncivilized nation. Getting close to a failed state.
14
We had drills at the school I taught at in Arizona. Code Blue One wall was all windows to the playground so we had the kids push their desks under the windows, then crawl underneath in silence. My job was to lock the outside door. That is what the social studies teacher was doing when he was killed. I often worried about that, but I also knew my duty was to my students.
I would have taken a bullet for those kids. I did have students over the years that scared me, and I taught 5th graders. We cannot control the fact that people have mental health issues and anger issues.
We can control the guns they can buy.
1
Restricting people with mental health histories from possessing firearms will simply cause fewer people to seek mental health professionals. If you are a gun owner, or seek to become a gun owner, you will have an incentive to avoid psychologists and psychiatrists. Is that really what we want to happen? Fewer people seeking mental help?
1
I am a New Yorker at heart, who has relocated to Florida, just five miles from the Parkland shooting.
It seems to me that something must be done to protect the children in our school system.
I think if we were to take all (or most) of our welfare recipients in the country, and put them to work as monitors in our school system, this might help to alleviate our problem. If we were to hire them at minimum wage, we could get rid of the welfare handout system, which is obviously not working.
If this does not seem feasible, at least we could make sure that receipt of welfare benefits be contingent on their working as monitors, for a said minimum of hours per day at each school.
There are a countless number of welfare recipients in each community, as well as a countless number of schools. We could have as many as are needed per school (possibly one dozen or more !!).
2
As a teacher, daughter of a teacher and mother of a teacher, the recent tragic deaths in the Florida high school have broken me. This is my personal tipping point, and, I hope, finally, the tipping point for our nation. That the courageous student survivors have to call out legislators, who have done nothing to protect them, speaks volumes. Listen to the children. "You are the grown-ups," one student said. Congress needs to listen, and act to stop sacrificing children, and their teachers, on the altar of the National Rifle Association and its misinterpretation of the Second Amendment.
6
Latest headline from satire newspaper The Onion (and this is from its archives, but they just reposted it on Facebook):
"NRA Calls For Teachers To Keep Loaded Gun Pointed At Class For Entire School Day"
FAIRFAX, VA—In the wake of Monday’s tragic Nevada school shooting in which a 12-year-old student killed a teacher and wounded two classmates, representatives from the National Rifle Association pushed for all teachers around the country to keep a loaded gun pointed at their classes throughout the school day. “The only way to ensure safety in our schools is to make sure teachers hold fully loaded firearms at students from the moment they walk into the classroom until the moment they leave,” said NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre, explaining that educators should, at the very least, point one 9mm semiautomatic pistol at the class while also keeping a concealed .357 magnum revolver and several spare cartridges of ammo nearby at all times.
(end)
I think this is where the NRA would like us all to end up.
1
I am a teacher and I have my own two children I would prefer to live for. Being lauded as a human shield is not what I want. I want a ban on guns.
My brother spoke out against guns as a child at a town meeting in the early 1980s and hecklers in the audience called him a "commie pawn". This is an old issue.
I can't tell you how weary I felt coming to school this morning after a weekend of news and argument about our society and its right to own guns capable of killing mass numbers of people before anyone can't mount an effective defense.
No, I don't want to die for my students. I want them to live, and I want to live, too.
91
Yes! We who teach want the best for our students. Having to shield them from a shooter is not the best for anyone.
2
Right there with you!
2
Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, to the wonderful educators who prepare our young people for the world.
More and more educators are having to take bullets for their students. It is ludicrous.
WE THE PEOPLE must join students and teachers, and other gun violence victims, across OUR United States of America and DEMAND that:
EVERY GUN in the United States, it's territories and other property, must be REGISTERED on an national database, state LICENSED and fully INSURED for liability.
Just like cars.
It's quite simple and could be an addendum to the 2nd Amendment to our U.S. Constitution.
Manufacturers already track every weapon, bullet, and accessory to track sales - and profit. They would simply have to make the information available to OUR law enforcement complex. States are already set up to license for hunting, fishing and automobiles and could simply add firearms. Insurers would cull out dangerous owners. The stick to not complying could be a $5,000 fine for every firearm not licensed.
Attention gun owners: WE do not want your guns. WE want your guns to stop killing us and our loved ones. Don't you?
3
You live in America and owning guns without registration tentacles is a right, not a privilege like driving a car.
And while you are on the registration path, how about registering citizens and require proof to vote?
I'm a high school teacher in Florida. I was in fifth grade when Columbine happened. It was my lifelong dream to be a teacher - I thought I could do a better job than most of the ones I had. I was right, for the most part, until it became our responsibility to be meatshields.
I don't have kids. I don't want kids. I don't particularly like kids. But I teach them and pour my heart and soul into it because I truly believe it's one of society's most critical functions. When and why did that stop being enough?
A high school friend of mine and I had a discussion the other day. He and his wife both work in schools, too. He said, "eventually, you know, one of us is getting gunned down". And since then my anxiety has been whether to accede to my partner's pleas to change career.
12
Don't you think your students realize that you don't like them? They are kids, and you don't like kids.
The operative word is "particularly". Many people become teachers because they love kids. I'm not among them (which is why I teach older students).
Don't get me wrong, I like my students, and unless they're all fakers and liars, most of them like me. I don't care whether they like me or not, though; I'm there to teach them, not be their buddy. There aren't many things I wouldn't do for them -- but throwing myself in front of a bullet? I'm honest enough with myself to say that I can't say I would do that.
And I fear that those who say they would do so are setting an unfair standard, and worse, are normalizing this new status quo. I shouldn't have to make the choice to sacrifice everything for a child that is not my own (what if I had kids myself, as many of my colleagues do?) because their parents can't sacrifice their precious AR-15s.
1
I believe we have finally reached the low point in our country where massive public action is required. I call for a Walk Out by teachers across the country -- students will follow you into the streets. A complete shut down of our public school system for a five day week -- Monday - Friday. Bring "business as usual" to a STOP. Force the country, the world and especially our so called leaders to act. Force them to respond to a list of reasonable demands -- changes that the great majority of American people agree with.
16
This is insane, teachers shouldn't need to ask themselves this question. The questions confronting society now should be how to get a) Get the guns out of the hands lunatics. b) Make schools and univeristies safer (metal detectors, barricades, etc.) c) Convince the NRA, and its supporters that the US is the only place in the world were non-terrorist civilians take the lives of children, because they will not yield and self impose controls on their business of selling weapons and their desire to own weapons in times of peace.
5
One can think about this In advance but when push comes to shove, it boils down to instinct of teacher and/or student.
One never knows what one is made of until tested. Hopefully it is test that one will never have to face.
2
I admire the altruism of teachers who would give their lives for their students, but it would be better if schools allowed teachers with concealed carry permits to bring their guns to school. Someone with a gun is usually stopped only by someone else with a gun.
1
Dear USA, soon, this will be sadly and conveniently forgotten...I do not mean this as any form of disrespect. In most countries, contributions as overt as those given to politicians by pro gun lobbyists, gun companies, would be construed as some form of corruption. Looking in from the outside, it just doesn't make sense that YOU would not choose the ballot box to exercise your rights...
2
I had a career as a firefighter before I became a teacher. I have always known that I would lay down my life without question for my students, because that's what I swore to do for the general population in my last career. However, in college in the eighties, this never came up as a problem we, as future teachers might have to face. Now in my school, we have regular lockdown drills. It is difficult to describe to elementary students why we need to be so quiet, and why we have to sit on the floor in the dark so long. We are very guarded as to what we tell the kids as to the purpose of the exercise. Some of the students do know. For them, lockdown drills are very frightening, as there is no notification as to whether this is a drill or not when they are announced. I never knew it would come to this. I would gladly lay down my life for my students, but that is not why this is happening. All of our lives are at risk because so many people exercise their right to keep a weapon designed to kill massive numbers of people. For most owners of these monstrous weapons, they keep them because they are fun to shoot. They are glorified boy toys. For the sake of their hobby, they are telling students and the teachers that protect them that they must be afraid in school, or perhaps even die for the personal amusement of these gun owners. I say, scrap every last one of them. No child should die for the sake of someone's demented hobby.
9
Here’s a thought. What if all the teachers in Florida staged a mass boycott of schools. We’re not going back to jeopardize our lives or the lives of our children until the state legislature votes to ban the sale of assault weapons. Might help shake things up in Tallahassee.
2
Wouldn't the safest way to handle a shooter in the halls be to hide against the wall on either side of the door? Then no one can be shot from the hall, and if the shooter walks in there are people who can jump right on him. You'll see the barrel of the gun before the shooter sees you.
Grab it.
Standing in the back of the classroom, next to a closet, with a pair of sharp scissors isn't going to work.
1
I am going to go out on a limb here and say, what-if scenarios are less than helpful when you are not the one facing the circumstances you are describing. We all believe we would be heroes and maybe some of us will, but there is no way to know what you will do in a situation until you are in it. Unless we are giving teachers and students combat training.
2
I am afraid it'is a matter of education , in schools , families , society , America is a country created through violence , genocide ( american legitimate inhabitants ) , pillage and so on . The second amendment belongs or should belong to the past , on the contrary it is so much embedded in your mentality that it will take tens of years to the US to became a real civilized country .
It is time for all teachers and school administrators to have basic law enforcement and safety training including the use of firearms. Nobody takes a gun and attacks a police station. Sad, but this is what it has come to.
1
The human mind and spirit must have places in which calm or peace or purpose are consistent and expected. That is where we recharge, create, and bond with each other. We were not created or evolved to always be on the edge for threats. A school, church, hospital, and many other places cannot be compromised without damage to the individual or society. This being the case, measures are taken so that these places can fulfill their missions, you sign in or are greeted, ID yourself, and rules and expectations are posted.
Did we do enough to make sure the kids and adults at Stoneman Douglas understood their roles and the purpose of the place? Yes.
Did we as a society ensure that this place of learning about themselves and the world, is a safe place for that learning process? No
The American and Patriotic response must be one of corrective purpose of our failure. A good starting point must include the level of violence we casually accept, how we raise and treat each other, our lack of full support for mental health, and a responsible look at the easily available weapons of war for civilians. One must suspect and challenge the real motivations of individuals of individuals or groups that would oppose moral and responsible change to avoid these sad events.
We all wish, pray, and encourage the students and staff of Stoneman Douglas as each in their own way and time go back to remember and move forward with their lives.
Jon, this is a beautifully reasoned and written response. Thank you.
I was a teacher in Scotland in 1996 when dozens of chidldren were massacred in Dunblane. That was the last time anybody died in a school shooting in the UK.
And guess what - in our population of 60 million we have as the same proportion of mentaly deranged people as most western countries. We didn't stop them by introducing background checks we stop tham by making it as difficult as possible for violent people to get anywhere near a gun.
8
There is no greater sacrifice than laying one's life down so others can live. Some how, I just don't ever see a similar sacrifice nor courage emanating from any elected official. That's the other side of this tragic scenario. Teachers are today's heroes and politicians continue to be yesterday's zeros.
4
When I was a graduate TA in a large university the first thing I did every quarter was figure out an escape plan out of my classroom in case there was a shooter. Keep in mind that we are not involved in a land war with another country, just a war with guns and gun lobbyists.
1
I'd like to think I'd take a bullet for my students. Then again, I have a six year-old daughter I'm not done raising and caring for. A horrible choice that I hope to never have to make.
4
I am strongly considering taking my child out of school until some meaningful gun control laws are passed. Schools can't protect my child from this danger. Only society can, and so far it has failed to do so.
I'm so unbelievable disgusted with Americans right now because their love for their fetish object allows them to disregard the obvious fact that killers with assault weapons can roam our society pretty much unchecked. This is in spite of the fact that it would be easy to screen people for gun ownership, much like you screen and test people before they receive a driver's license.
8
If all parents took their kids out of school till these weapons are no longer endangering children in schools, if all said they’d only vote for someone who VOWED to change the law, we’d see change!
1
Some people have suggested that teachers can protect their students by contacting their representatives. I don't think that will do the trick.
In my state, the Republican governor, senate, and assembly seem to make decisions based upon the principle, "What would a liberal teacher hate the most?"
What is needed is a change in the mindset of conservative voters. The NRA has used the line, "They want to take away your guns - it's the first step to enslaving you!" to scare up donations from their membership.
The political will to enact sensible gun laws won't emerge until the all-powerful grip of the NRA is broken. When a Republican can get elected without the endorsement of the NRA, then there will be hope for change.
1
The time is upon to solve this and we are being led by some brave and articulate children.
High time Congress grew a spine and listened.
2
What is cheaper? Putting armed guards in every elementary, middle and
high school in the US or banning the sale of semi-automatic killing
machines and ammunition?
1
There are thousands of these weapons out there already. Should they be confiscated?
Yes.
1
We simply can no longer let the Republicans talk about how passing new gun legislation isn't the answer. We need to disrupt them and shout them down. These brave teachers and students shouldn't have died in vain.
This butchery of our children has to stop.
3
Admirable sentiment but this is not the answer. Teachers teach.
5
Among our most valuable resources we have are our teachers. They are educators, counselors, leaders, health care providers, surrogate parents, as well as for many, biological ones. We need them, our kids need them. They are instrumental when it comes to the future of our nation, the generations now and those to come.
Just like we need to protect our children, we need to protect our educators. To ask them to do more than their already heroic vocations require of them is unjust. We as a society need to call on our Congress now for more stringent gun control laws. I am not asking to overturn our Second Amendment. But people would be hard-pressed to deny that what is happening right now in our society is not what our forefathers envisioned.
We have a duty, an obligation, to take up yet another of the many battles which this present political paradigm has thrusted upon us. It is no longer okay to have the NRA's greed and infamous power control our very lives. They have got to be fought as well as its fanatical supporters from within and outside this Congress. No more silence, please. We are just as responsible for these senseless massacres if we do nothing to stop them.
29
Teachers, like me, should have no worries. The safety officer can "take the bullet". We teachers are covered by a union contract that does not require getting shot while on school grounds. For some reason, the USA expects teachers to do this, along with all else we do. Teachers are not protesting, nor are their unions standing up to protect them (us).
At this point in our history, we have come to the point where we have to decide if the life of a child is more important that the right to own a particular gun. This is where the Declaration of Independence "unalienable rights" of life, liberty and happiness come into conflict with a "well regulated" militia's right to own military-grade firearms. Time for WELL REGULATED.
Since the gov't is unable to protect our kids/people, school districts should take it upon themselves to be proactive. For example, school districts require vaccinations when there are no laws on the books for them. School districts should require that if a student or family of a student has access to firearms that student should not be allowed into school until there has been proof that the weapons are in a locked safe where the student does not have access to the key. A student or family should not have access to AR style firearms period. If so they should not be allowed into school. Kids that threaten violence should be psychiatrically committed and expelled. Kids that show symptoms of mental issues should be fully investigated for access to weapons. All school districts should have metal detectors at entrances and should have on-site/perimeter guards. There should be not just a zero tolerance there should be proactive measures taken by school districts. It's time to wake-up folks, we will never have gun control in this country. Even if the NRA disappeared tomorrow there are still so many guns out there that short of a huge buyback program they will always be out there.
So if we want our kids to be safe in school the school districts need to step up to protect them.
As a teacher of students with autism this is something that I wrestle with every single day. It does not always occupy the forefront of my mind, but it's always there, pulled up at random intervals during the week, and especially when an incident like this occurs. Will today be the day, with my classroom right next to the main entrance, that I will have to make a choice that I will be unable to live with? Or will I die for my five students, who I care very deeply about, but not necessarily in a way that makes me ok giving up my future? Why does this impossible conundrum need to occupy my thoughts when I should be focused exclusively on educating and preparing my students for their own future, whatever that should look like.
In addition, to compound the situation-I can pinpoint a handful of students in my own school that I can envision going on to commit a heinous act such as this, including one in my own classroom. Everyone I work with is in agreement of the warning signs. They may only be 9 and 10 year olds, and no one can be certain of the future, but there are red flags that can appear at a very young age. What are we doing for these young boys and girls? There are certainly very few supports in place to get them the help they need at the moment, regardless of everyone's best intentions.
41
Do you have a labor union contract? Do you have a school safety officer? Teachers are not to be "taking a bullet". That is the job of the safety officer. You are to be protected by your union. (Sarcasm here. Nothing left...)
The NRA aids and abets killing children. Politicians are spineless creatures scared of losing their jobs if they vote the wrong way. The only way they will turn their backs to the NRA is when there is a stronger force to reckon with. That force is big business. Start with Florida. Get the word out that it is is not safe to visit. Tourism is a big business. When that starts to go down, you will see changes.
15
Wondering how many lobbyists and politicians would take a bullet for the kids?
179
Most politicians are just looking to take another "buck" from the lobbyists.
1
A big fat none.
1
those politicians will not even give up money for kids. some moms in southeast iowa have acted to help keep kids safe. politicians drink whiskey, chase and do nothing to help.
1
This weekend, as we cried in front of the news, my former school teacher friend in VT told me that schools should be renamed as "uteruses". (Stay with me a minute here.)
In other words:
"The Columbine Uterus"
"The Virginia Tech Uterus"
"The Sandyhook Uterus"
"The Stoneham Douglas Uterus"
etc. etc etc. ec.
Then certainly we would be assured that the Congress, instead of jumping back onto the laps of their owners at the NRA, would do everything to protect all the young life inside all those "uteruses.
19
Would our president take a bullet for any of these kids -- or just pay lip service?
14
Oh More Guns, Ammo And Muscle on school campuses. That'll fix things. Please.
33
I am not sure if this is serious or not.
There is still, a skirting around of the central cause. We are civilized, so we say. Yet have this over powering need to arm ourselves with these high powered, automatic weapons that can cause such "overkill". Who is getting attacked by hoards? Are their vast military regiments coming for us? If these are for hunting? Really? How far away do you really need to be from animal before you take their lives? Are you even in the same zip code? Such a proud moment when you pull that trigger?! Something dies. So you can kill, children will and are dying. Shame. Men's egos come with too high a price in this country.SURPRISE GOP sides with more guns.
4
But we don't ALL have "an over powering need to arm ourselves." Not even most of us. I've lived in the rural South, and even there it's not "most" of us. Most people are sane rational actors but we've allowed a fanatical band of paranoiacs, under the leadership of the NRA (which itself used to be a sane and useful organization that primarily supported gun safety for hunters), and through a deliberate misreading of the Second Amendment, to make it legitimate to stockpile unlimited quantities of military assault weapons. No sane person uses weapons like that for hunting. And as far as men's egos are concerned, let me remind you that it was Nancy Lanza, the mother of the Sandy Hook shooter, who was the gun collector and target shooter in the family. She had a seriously disturbed child yet she still thought it was a good idea to keep an arsenal of guns and ammunition in the house. It was with his mother's Bushmaster XM-15 assault rifle and a Glock handgun that Adam Lanza killed 20 first graders and 6 adults, including his mother.
1
"A child shall lead them." - Isaiah 11:6. When adults are not capable of doing what is obviously right, perhaps our children can lead us to reason. For those who are about to froth at the mouth about "what is obviously right," so far this year there have been 2,021 gun deaths, 461 children killed or injured by guns, and 34 mass shootings. QED.
9
Our collective energy must be focused on supporting stricter gun laws and absolutely banning guns in schools, nationwide. No guns. Neither teachers nor students should be allowed to bring such lethal weapoms into any public or private school.
7
The vast majority of schools ban anyone other than law enforcement from entering school buildings armed. That still doesn't stop mass shootings at schools. Just like prohibition didn't stop drinking.
1
School shootings are tragic and we should be looking at every opportunity to prevent them. And obviously elevated awareness and fear can be an ally to those looking to control guns, lock down schools, etc. However, humans are very bad at evaluating risk. Our attention is captivated by the tragic, the sensational, and the rare. This distracts us from risks that larger and more common. Gun violence is schools is often. Each of the cases we learn about is one case too many. But, even in total, these cases do not make school a dangerous place. The risks that students and teachers face with regard to gun violence remains very low and, in fact, is nowhere close to the largest risk that students and teachers face each and every day. They are far more likely to die in car accident and about as likely to die by falling. Does this minimize the tragedy? Not at all. Does it mean we shouldn't respond? Obviously not. But our reaction needs to be governed by an understanding of the risk and articles such as this one do not help provide a fair assessment.
If the murdered child is your child the risk is 100%. All of these children, the murdered ones and the ones at risk, are our children.
We all know Trump and Congress will do nothing to address this situation. As parents, we at least can ensure our children have on their cellphones a pre-loaded a text message saying something along the lines of the following:
"Mom, Dad, we have been told there is an active shooter at our school right now. So far I am still safe. I want to say thank you for being my parents and that I love you in case I don't make it home."
Not all children will have time or presence of mind to compose and type such a note themselves while hearing their schoolmates and teachers being slaughtered in the hallways and nearby classrooms. Every student should have this message on her/his cellphone ready so that all they will need is a few seconds to hit Send. It won’t ease the pain or loss, but it's better for their parents to receive a farewell text rather than nothing before finding out their child is dead. Welcome to the new normal.
1
If you want teachers to function as cops, they should receive the same benefits (overtime, early retirement options, etc.) as cops.
12
How about hazard pay and enough death benefits that will care for widowed partner and kids through college?
Teachers are being asked to do more and more. The burden of trying to prevent these shootings, and then protecting your children if the worst does happen, is being laid solely on the shoulders of the schools. The faculty at Douglas did everything they were supposed to, some went above and beyond expectations, and still 17 died. Every day we're finding out more and more about how often people reported concerns about the shooter to government agencies, including the FBI, just like we're supposed to.
Now they want us to carry guns in our classroom. Really? More obligation and responsibility placed on the teachers to solve this problem? Why? Most likely because politicians know we don't shirk our responsibilities, and take for granted how much we care about our students, now asking us to lay down our lives for them. They want us to be trained in security and protection. They want us to watch each and every student (I have more than 200) for psychological problems or isolation. Now they want to arm us.
To this I ask our government - WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO DO SOMETHING? We've done everything you've asked, and students are still dying. Your agencies failed in protecting them from a shooter who had been reported multiple times to multiple agencies. And, shockingly, your response is to put more responsibility on the teachers.
WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO STEP UP AND ACTUALLY DO SOMETHING?
23
American leadership has proven to be feckless and malignant allowing the flooding of the USA with arms, like it has overseas when it intends to destabilize what used to be called 3rd world nations and sow civil wars. The grotesque "adults" in Washington have failed to protect American children from human rights atrocities perpetrated on them by their fellow Americans. It has gotten so bad, the kids have to mobilize and March on Washington to demand an end to their slaughter at the hands of their gun loving fellow Americans. This is a uniquely perverse American pathology. It is also the antithesis of freedom as civil, rational and peace loving Americans have been enslaved by the violent supporters of an antiquated 2nd amendment who act out their violent fantasies against their fellow Americans, be it at these public mass abominations or when authorities shoot unarmed men women and children during encounters with civilians like the child Tamir Rice or father Walter Scott. The saturation of US society with arms is a form of tyranny in contempt of human and civil rights. We don't need more armed wannabe "good guy" cartoon heroes but a more equitable and civil society. It's time to do the right thing and disarm the public and police like in the UK and Japan and become a civilized nation not a savage one.
8
Teachers are not police, and they certainly are not soldiers. We should never expect them to act in this manner. A violent situation could turn even worse if teachers start firing back into hallways filled with children amid the chaos of a terrible situation.
Schools also can not be expected to turn into fortresses. With budget constraints already limiting extra curricular activities, classroom size, and course offerings, this is money that would better serve the community in educating students.
The solution seems to be a combination of early intervention, such as identifying possible violent tendencies and correcting them young, support for students who find themselves in difficult situations, and limiting access to high power, large capacity firearms.
6
The truth about why the NRA, Trump and Republicans run for the "mental illness" is almost laughable. With the number of innocent people gunned down in mass shootings in the US, it would seem that perhaps, mental illness is borne of an addiction to guns.
Like a heroin addict who can become out of control without a "fix," gun addicts do the very same thing when they cannot imagine their lives without a gun. They say, "You can have my gun when you pry it from my cold dead hands." Not an addiction?
Most of us know that there are reasons for some individuals to own guns. They have livestock and family to protect from wild animals. When did our kids in school become the prey of gun addicts?
The answer is simple: When Republicans, time after time, promise the most recent gun massacres are the last and will pass legislation and then, like Speaker Coward Ryan, refuses to allow ANY gun legislation to be brought to the floor. Or when the big cowboy heroes like Gohmert, Grassley, Cornyn and the rest of the shoot 'em ups refuse to drop their partisanship to save our kids lives.
Do these so called elected representatives represent us or their own personal gun addictions?
10
I teach at the university level and our annual active shooter training advises that faculty are under no obligation to put their lives at risk to save students. I hope to never have to find out what I would do under those kinds of circumstances.
As to the high school teachers in this story, if you think they need to put student lives ahead of their own, perhaps we as a society could actually treat K-12 teachers with some genuine respect. And if it's supposed to be a "life on the line" job, pay them accordingly.
15
The American Federation of Teachers needs to call for a strike. Either we start giving these teachers hazard pay or we institute strict gun control so they aren't trying to teach in a war zone. The teachers across America need to join the kids demanding change. I would fully support and join in such a protest and I doubt I'm the only one.
15
We cannot strike in Florida. By law we lose our jobs if we go on strike.
What an deprived culture we live in when teachers can (and some have to) consider taking a bullet for their students but can't get the proper funding to educate them.
If this is becoming the case, I expect the insurance industry to start charging higher rates to those employed in the field and selling mass shooting-related life/disability insurance.
5
Here in Wisconsin, our governing party - the NRA bought and paid for Republicans - is only concerned with de-unionizing teachers. That way, they don't have to even talk to them when it comes time to decide terms and conditions of employment. How nice for them.
13
When I was in K-12 and college and grad school, I never once thought of guns being there. I never thought of another student with a gun.
Never, ever a teacher or professor with a gun. There were no security guards in K-12. College security guards were un-armed, old chubby guys in suspenders and over washed identical shirts (their “uniform”). They mostly unlocked doors for us late at night, when a lab or workroom door, left ajar with a book or black board eraser while we used the bathroom, was accidentally closed.
I guess I am a conservative about places of learning and want schools to be like they were when I was a student: JUST a place to learn in peace. No guns at all. Period.
13
I am a retired teacher. I taught in inner city schools that sometimes had difficult kids, but never once did I think I could be murdered while teaching a class. But I do know this if I were faced with such unfolding horror I would not be the first one in the closet or to duck under a desk. Just as with the captain of a ship I would have to be the last one standing. Each teacher is the captain of his/her little ship--the classroom and we must stand and protect. My heart aches for the children and teachers of today.
40
Sorry, but I disagree. I'm not paid to martyr myself for someone else's children, nor is it part of my job description. If administration, patrons, or school board disagree, they are welcome to replace me with a soldier or police officer. They are properly trained and equipped for a firefight.
1
Easy for you to say--you are retired!
This is easy for a retired teacher to volunteer to do. Not sure what he means being the last one standing, Some people are saying the teachers should be the first to fall, but this is not what a teacher signs up for. Maybe police, maybe military, maybe secret service can take a bullet, not the teachers, they are not trained for this, nor is it their role. They are being asked to stand bravely in place because of the cowardice of our legislators.
It is a sorry state of affairs that Congress and Senate will not do what is right. Maybe they should come to school rooms and stand in front of bullets.
No civilian in this country has any reason to have a military type assault weapon.
All 77% of us who are for sensible gun laws should vow never to vote for anyone who feels differently.
Maybe those in the NRA and I understand there are quite a few who support sensible gun legislation, should stop paying their dues, and write in why they are holding payment.
As a teacher in Florida of 22 years I read this article with interest. I then asked myself the same question...and the real truth is: I don't know. The reality is that most people, unless they have been well trained, have any idea how they would act in an active shooter situation. I have heard a lot about arming teachers over the last few days. I think that is misguided. The pro gun folks believe that, if put in this situation, they automatically become John McClane or Frank Castle, because they are armed. The other part is: Do you want that many guns on campus? The average high school teacher can easily be overpowered physically by the students. It's why we do not arm prison guards. Lastly, police officers who receive extensive training still occasionally make mistakes...and those mistakes can be deadly. How does a teacher know when to shoot? Do we shoot only when being shot at? Seems a little late at that point. So, what about preemptively? How does one distinguish between the need for lethal force and just another fight in the cafeteria? Im not sure what the solution is, but I don't believe arming teachers is it.
9
Teenagers burying teenagers is a cruel and traumatic spectacle and experience. Burying young friends needlessly shot dead alongside other friends in classrooms is as horrific as it gets. For better or worse the remainder of the lives of these kids has been cast in fire and blood. Let's hope the lit passions of these Florida teens turn toward accomplishing good in the world and helps rid us all of inert politicians.
1
All those teachers in Florida could really protect their students by writing their Congressmen in the Florida state legislature so that the state of Florida would not have the loosest gun regulation laws in the whole United States. That action might actually accomplish something.
31
I think your heart is in the right place about "writing letters". BUT, that time is over. Massive action by teachers, students and parents is necessary. It is time for "walk out" involving the whole country.
1
I can assure you it won't. Teachers are (nominally) unionized employees. We're "the enemy" to most in Tallahassee, who are probably happy to see us die.
This is far from our first school shooting. Letters and petitions are as useful as thoughts and prayers.
1
I'm a public school teacher in Los Angeles. Would I jump in front of a bullet? Probably not. Could I get hit with a bullet? Probably. I didn't become a teacher because I wanted to be some hero, I just like helping kids.
52
“Last night I told my wife I would take a bullet for the kids,”
I find it deeply troubling, alarming and heartbreaking when a teacher's primary goal of educating their students is shadowed by their willingness to "take a bullet for their kids." Robert Parish's admission of giving his life in exchange for the safety of his students should be ringing louder in the halls of Congress than bullets fired in the halls of any school.
Wake up Washington!!! Enough is enough. Please take serious action before another innocent life is stolen and other lives are destroyed forever.
46
Public opinion that mental illness is the main problem underlying most shooting tragedies is a common misconception of roughly half of Americans. Polls show they either believe that failing to identify people with mental health problems is the primary cause of gun violence or that addressing mental health issues would be a major deterrent. Widely accepted research by mental health experts show these popular conclusions are myth/incorrect.
In one research example, analysis of 235 mass killings, many carried out with firearms, 22% of the perpetrators were considered mentally ill. Overall, mass shootings by mentally ill is only 1% of all U.S. gun homicides yearly, according to “Gun Violence & Mental Illness”, by the American Psychiatric Association. Alarmingly, suicides by firearms are much more prevalent than are gun related homicides & mass shootings.
Banning sales to people deemed dangerous by mental health providers could help prevent mass shootings. Experts say more measures to ban assault weapons & ban sales to teenagers & convicted violent criminals are effective. Most important to understand is that Americans do not have more mental health problems than any other developed nation of a comparable size. Other nations experience far fewer mass shootings because they have stringent legal requirements for weapons ownership . Florida and the USA can start the very long road to effective weapon control and increased public safety by banning all dangerous assault weapons
42
Again I state, the underlying issue is anger not mental illness. Mental illness doesn't set the perpetrators off isn't the trigger, anger is and my guess these men are generally not the sort who will avail themselves of professional help for anger issues. We need to control the guns.
I am a former teacher. I would not have wanted the responsibility a carrying a weapon and as many pros state, it would be unlikely to help. As we did shelter in place drills, I always thought about the windows in the room. Shades being closed to prevent a gunman from seeing kids would not prevent shooting into the room from outside. Having a weapon will never prevent such a scenario.
1
In the midst of this brutal and disgraceful epidemic of school violence, America needs our officials to do what they were elected to do - get out of their comfy chairs in their safe offices and tackle this issue NOW! Think representatives of your own school days - you did it worry every day that gunmen with Army- style weapons would invade your classroom. How shameful this has been allowed to continue for years without the grownups -the people entrusted by the citizens to be in charge - doing anything to stop it. Not one more student, teacher or family should be allowed to suffer because of their continued inaction. No civilized country in the world bypasses the opportunity to correct such a grieveous wrong with claims of “it’s too soon to deal with this issue - let’s wait until the pain subsides.” Listen to our children The pain will not subside - act now!
24
Students carrying their teacher's coffin, how incredibly sad.
84
What's "putting teachers into the role of human shields"
are gun laws which put assault weapons
in the hands of teenagers.
40
Really? Have we totally lost our minds?
Why do we give in to the small minded boys in adult bodies who think they have some kind of right to own and use killing machines with impunity. YES it is time to confront the gun "culture". NO th 2nd amendment does NOT give them the right to own children killing machines.
And really? Teachers now have to stop bullets? Really?
Good luck with that America. Should make for great incentive to go into a career in education.
Enough is Enough! BAN Assault Weapons!
106
What other profession has been asked to take a bullet for someone else, and on a salary that can barely sustain a family? When congress failed to act after Sandy Hook it was obvious that they value neither teachers nor children, just their donations from the NRA.
114
Ask any Special Ed teacher at any school, in any school district, how many potential Nikolas Cruz-types they deal with on a regular basis. Their answer would astound you. The public schools, unlike other types, have to provide for these unfortunate kids.
The next time you see a Special Ed teacher, walk up and shake their hand. They work hand in hand with the police, social workers and school administrators in trying to mitigate the many problems kids like these face and do infinitely more than the general public imagines.
This is not to say that AR15s are not a huge problem, but rather to say the Special Ed teachers probably diffuse a lot of the problems before the gun enters the picture.
47
There is someting deeply wrong with our society when teachers need to consider whether or not they will be human shields to protect children from shooters in schools, or when parents as part of the facts of life need to tell their children how to hide and protect themselves should a gunman enter their school and start killing innocent people, or when parents need to tell their kids how to dial 911 from a classroom to report an active shootong.
Even worse, there is something more wrong with political leaders who think these stressful conversations are more acceptable than discussing and enacting gun safety laws.
I am waiting for the day when these politicians are voted out of office and replaced by individuals who value human lives more than their political careers.
70
Ms. Holland, Mr. Card, Mr. Parish, it is critical that you go back. Your caring, support and the strength you offer will be a major factor in returning the lives of these vulnerable young students to a semblance of normalcy.
Encourage the students, all Floridians and all caring Americans to make their voices heard. We all know Congress is filled with weaklings and NRA sycophants, but perhaps some will find their courage. It is long overdue.
Guns are not more valuable than children's lives.
13
Emotion rather logic rules the article and responses. In the abstract, we could eliminate every gun in the country. That won't happen.
So a teacher says they will take a bullet. This has happened. At Virginia Tech, a Holocaust survivor elderly professor held a door closed while students escaped. He was shot through the door and died. A charging student was shot dead. At Stoneman, charging teachers were killed. Now it has happened that some killers have been taken down in pausing in firing due to jams or reloading - that's after the fact of deaths.
A teacher in the piece will hide in the closet. At Sandy Hook, such hidden teachers and students were found in such a death trap and killed.
What conclusions - the emotional responses and noble sentiments for a suicidal action are just that. They lack the efficacy of the terrible decision that you have to be able to fight back with a firearm that could stop the killer. The VT teacher, the closet teacher, the charging coach - all could have stopped their killers if armed.
A recent piece in the Atlantic says gun control is possible , look at Clinton and the Assault Rifle Ban. The author, with academic credentials, failed to mention that quality peer reviewed studies found the ban had absolutely no effect on any crime indices as it didn't remove existing stocks or equally efficacious new weapons. The ban was only cosmetic. Folks should study up before praising the ban.
4
Gun control didn't affect violent crime, but it reduced gun deaths significantly. Unfortunately most gun deaths come from the barrel of a handgun, not an assault rifle.
1
None the less, states with with stricter gun laws have less gun violence, countries with stricter gun laws have far less gun violence,
Lots of brave, tough talk. One teacher can only protect a few children at a time, and only if they allow him, or her, to do so. Nikolas Cruz, the alleged, recent Florida high-school shooter, was completely devious in his methods of ringing a fire alarm, shooting students reacting to the alarm, ditching his rifle after a time, then filing out with a group of students. Afterwards, he cooly went to a local Subway restaurant, and got himself something to drink. He is a sociopath. Protecting our students against such a person would require turning each school into a type of prison, ringed with razor-wire fencing, and armed guards at a gateway into the school. Even such a system could be defeated with enough smarts and will power. The guards will get lulled into a false sense of security when months, and even years, go by without any armed shooters showing up. Then, one day, someone will allowed in with a completely concealed weapon, or one thrown over the fence a day beforehand. . This person will become the next school shooter. We have to ask ourselves what sorts of messages we want to send to our young students by making their schools in to prison-like structures.
13
He is not a sociopath, he is autistic; they have difficulty perceiving how their actions impact others emotionally. The fast and loose use of these words on Law&Order is among the problems with our culture.
It's obvious to any educator what happened here. Autistic children often develop obsessive behaviors, especially absent rigorous parenting. This one developed such behavior in the worst possible way. And he was unable to stop himself, just as our gun-obsessed society was unable to stop him.
When he said he was sorry, he probably meant it. THAT is the hard reality that nobody wants to face. Children are not born sociopaths, or evil. They are molded in the image of the environment they grow up in.
1
This is garbage, Seb, and smears autistic people with a brush full of coal tar. Yes, some people are born sociopaths. If they are killing animals and setting fires before they are 7, they are probably sociopaths. The various systems had flagged Cruz as a bad egg numerous times, but no collective action was take. The police had visited one of the homes he stayed in multiple times because of disturbances he caused.
1
I don’t want my kids’ teacher to be a saint. I want him or her to be a good teacher. Nothing shows the pathetic stupidity of American gun culture like the fact that teachers should even consider taking a bullet for their students. And before some NRA paid genius yells that now we should arm school workers with assault rifles, let me point out that this only ensures that the next school shooter will be a teacher. Whoever you give a gun to, saint or sinner, will eventually pull the trigger. The psychology of violence is incontrovertible on this point: anybody can be conditioned to kill, and the availability of weapons is the first step in this conditioning. Guns do kill people.
215
So how do you feel about JROTC and military recruiters in our schools?
Actually not everyone with a gun really will become a shooter or we'd all already be dead. I am for gun control and safety measures, but reason still matters, and exaggerations however well meant don't help.
1
Your child's teacher cannot be a saint. Teachers are covered by a labor union contract that does not include "taking a bullet". It is that simple: not a teacher's job.
Teachers have power through union. A NATION-WIDE TEACHER/STUDENT STRIKE UNTIL MEANINGFUL LEGISLATION ON GUN CONTROL. The support would cut through large swaths of America. It would be so disruptive that the well funded enablers-of-mass-murder in Congress would have to do something.
67
Are you kidding me? We don't have unions down here. I have quietly resigned from several teaching jobs due to fear of my students.
1
This is the answer. No one should go to a public school until meaningful gun reform is passed - teachers or students. This needs to happen. Non violent protest will solve this if the pressure is applied to the correct point.
1
That is exactly what I believe is necessary. See my related comment.
1
The best way to protect themselves is to do the one thing they are in the classroom to do: educate. The reason that teachers in some countries do not ever thing about the possiblility of gun violence in their classrooms is due to the values children were taught that shape national life and policy.
Much better than carrying guns to classes, teachers should indentify the values that maximize human flourishing and minimize violence and intentionally and throughout all curriculum and all grades teach those values. Ideas shape behaviour ... period.
41
But that has to start at home. As a high school teacher, kids have (or have not) already internalized those values by the time I see them.
Since the two-income household became a necessity in the 1980s, parents are holding things together with bubble gum and scotch tape. Teachers can supplement parental instilling of values, but can't replace the parents.
3
Also, another reason teachers in other countries don't worry about gun violence in their classes is that there are strict restrictions on civilian ownership of guns. The United States has less than five percent of the world's population, but half of all civilian-owned guns. We have six times the gun homicide rate of Canada, and 16 times that of Germany. Countries with more guns have more gun deaths. States with more guns have more gun deaths. We have the most guns, the laxest laws, and the most deaths. Perhaps parents can help out too.
2
No. The reason is that other countries do not have so many guns.
My niece is a teacher at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas HS. She was in lockdown for over two hours with 15 students. No one in her room was harmed, however, three of her students lost their lives. She attended their funerals, this past weekend. Hers was "the good school," where children wanted to learn; where teachers actually were able to teach. She is on a mission, along with her students. She is speaking out on gun control, on every platform offered her. Her students are making a difference & will be the force that will tip the scales & finally make our politicians listen to their constituents. I can only pray that my niece will never have to experience this kind of tragedy again.
81
Please ask your niece to non-violently act to force meaningful gun control legislation. I encourage her and her students to not return to school until nationwide gun control is law. I am advocating for such a strike in California.
1
The one good thing that will come of this is a critical mass of folks fed up with getting shot up when they should be focused on teaching our posterity calculus and programming code. If not this election cycle, soon.
What I want to see discussed is the immense psychological toll this is taking on those thousands of survivors. That harm lasts decades after the event and impacts lives over the long term. It needs to be discussed.
16
I find this all very amusing. It seems like America wants teachers to raise children for parents, pay for their own classroom supplies, beg voters and administrators for the step increases they deserve (but rarely get), and now literally take a bullet for the low price of ~$50,000 per year.
Are they going to get hazard pay if they agree to get shot for your children?
62
I once had a student say that he felt so safe in my small classroom that he didn't want to leave it. I knew him better than most of my students because I'd taught his older brother and met his father. I had that moment of truth -- that that's part of what a classroom should be, a place to learn and a place to exchange ideas safely. There's a teacher there to stimulate discussion and to moderate debate. There's a reason to go to that class where it's safe to learn new things. I do not think that there's much more a teacher can do. I had no closets in which to hide the students. I probably wouldn't be too useful in applying tourniquets, which is what my former colleagues are being asked to learn how to do. A short person, I doubt I could possibly keep a shooter at bay. What is this that society is asking of teachers? I did everything I could for my students, but take a bullet for them? Why is the shooter in the hallway in the first place? In requesting that teachers be the sheriffs, you're reducing schools to being the OK corral. This is impossible. We're already having trouble educating our students. Just keep the guns out of schools and stop defending the ridiculous second amendment.
188
I want to add that this article is a very good example of reporting because Ms. Turkewitz is presenting a variety of responses and is not judging what the teachers are saying. Despite objective reporting or maybe because of it, she has stimulated a civilized conversation. Thank you to her and to her editors as well.
3
Your union contract should be protecting you, and all of us teachers. Taking a bullet is the job of the school safety officer, not yours or mine. It is outrageous that any of us, or the general public, does not understand the importance of the contract.
I'm no Trump fan, and am all for a re-instatement of the federal AWB, rejiggered to not be so gap-ridden.
That said, this article -- while I am sympathetic to teachers' feelings of fear and vulnerability and duty -- is utterly devoid of context.
Even with the carnage that plays out in U.S. schools via semi-automatic weapons, the chances of a teacher or his/her students encountering such an attack are extraordinarily remote. The workers who *really* stand a significant chance of having to step into harms way and possibly taking a bullet for others are our first responders, *not* teachers. That most germane fact is not only not high up in the article, for context, as journalistic standards call for, it's absent entirely. Why?
1
Teachers died in Columbine, Sandy Hook, and Stoneman Douglas. I am not aware of any first responders that died in these school shootings.
6
Because the remote odds don't diminish the fact that it can happen to any of us, anywhere. No one is safe. That's the bloody point. Is that hard?
NO. ONE. IS. SAFE.
1
I can recall one instance of firefighters/EMTs responding to an intentionally set fire (in update NY I believe) walking into an ambush and being shot. I can also recall a few reports of law enforcement officers being ambushed as they sat in their patrol cars. Anecdotally, I would say the number of teachers killed is equal to or higher than the police officers killed in ambushes. Yet is seems like teaching should be the safest of these professions.
In comparing the jobs of teachers to firefighters, EMTs, and police officers it does seem that it has become a more dangerous profession. But to those that believe that armed teachers would make anyone safer let me caution this: who was the last unarmed student gunned down by a scared teacher? When was the last unarmed person gunned down by an EMT? When was the last unarmed person gunned down by a firefighter?
As a teacher, I don’t want any guns in my school, even in the hands of trained police officers, innocents will die. Police get scared and start shooting all the time.
25
The teacher would take a bullet for the kids but he won't object to the presence of military recruiters and programs in his school.
When a young person, a teenager, 14, 15, 16, 17 years of age shows an interest in pursuing a military career he may not immediately recognize that his or her ultimate job or duty will be to kill another human being. But when a student signs up for JROTC the military knows this and the training begins immediately because the JROTC is a military program run by the military. They choose the instructors they send to a school to be teachers of children. JROTC instructors only have to be high school graduates. They don't require a teacher's degree or any professional training to qualify as teachers. Some do, but it's not required.
When a teenager participates in a JROTC exercise of marksmanship it is explicit instruction to kill a human being. A hunting club, or shooting club does not have this explicit purpose. A student may just like developing the skill of marksmanship, maybe for the Olympics or just the fun of it. But if a student, a teenager, an immature minor, is in the JROTC program their activity on a rifle range is part of their military record and it is noted with the purpose of ultimately killing another human. The military knows who participated in JROTC in school. It is a military recruiting program. That is its purpose.
Nikolas Cruz was in JROTC and wanted to be in the Army. He was groomed for it as soon as he joined JROTC.
6
Thanks for making this point. Few draw the line between kids shot at home and kids bombed abroad. We glorify our trained killers then wonder why children want to be just like them. It wasn't so long ago that a former Marine was prowling the streets of Dallas with assault rifles, gunning down cops. But I'm sure most have already forgotten.
2
Over one third of America's mass murderers had served in the military, including Timothy McVeigh, who used a bomb. Others had significant military influences in their life. Both Adam Lanza and Nikolas Cruz obsessively played military themed video games. The military uses these games to train recruits and desensitize them to killing and violence.
https://www.livescience.com/10022-military-video-games.html
https://www.sfgate.com/science/article/THE-SCIENCE-OF-CREATING-KILLERS-H...
Of course I would. I was a Marine for more than a decade before I went into teaching and I'm glad to be able do for my students what my Martines and I would have done for each other in a heartbeat.
But I just never expected that gun violence would be so bad it would become necessary to HAVE to ask that question of a teacher. Something is really wrong here.
154
Taking a bullet is not part of our labor union contract. Public school teaching is a union job with a contract. I wish everyone, including teachers, would respect the contract (and respect the teachers), until said contract is renegotiated to include "taking a bullet".
Has our society reached the point where we now expect teachers to act as protectors and martyrs in the event of a school shooting? Because at all other times society expects teachers to accept low pay, long hours, minimal resources and support, increased expectations from administrators, increased demands from parents, disciplinary issues with students, and then to serve as the scapegoats for test scores and any other problems that arise from our school systems.
None of that makes any sense.
271
remember when billionaire and failed candidate Romney blamed teachers unions for the deficit ?
7
As a teacher for 20 years, none of this surprises me. However,
I no longer use logic to try to understand this. I just work VERY hard and
I hope for the best
19
This isn't about money
I greatly admire those who became human shields, I don't believe I would do that.
1
Americans are going to have to begin admitting some of their sons are simply murderers and rapists and serial killers. They are not insane, they are not wrapped in a psychosis, they are simply dangerous. It is a component of the male gender. Raise better sons or do not breed them; watch for their devious and violent behaviors that begin at puberty. Understand that that your sons are dangerous to the rest of society, regardless of race or income. They are especially wrapped up in sexual violence and male entitlement to commit violence, be it with guns, knives, or simply their hands. School shooters are no different than male perpetrators who shoot up Las Vegas concert goers or a Dallas nighttime BLM rally. There is one common denominator they possess, where they are in the U.S. or some 3rd world backwater: they are male. Start there.
We have to begin the discussion of how males are encouraged and enabled to be violent at very, very young ages and how parents and societies everywhere reward this and grow it like a fungus on the forest floor. Stop being surprised that 95% of criminals are male, endangering everyone and holding hostage everyone - certainly girls and women and venues where there will be gatherings of the most vulnerable. None of these predatory boys and men who plot and plan to slaughter the innocents are choosing venues of tractor pulls and football games.
62
Some of us has already admitted that. And some females have bad attributes as well.
Well Stated!
Why do so many men so fervently defend their so called "right" to own Assault Weapons? Simple, it makes them feel all "big and strong" and "powerful", so they can "defend" themselves. Like they can't without the gun? SAD.
Time to confront these men and their beliefs. Remember the surround us. They live in our homes and communities, we know them. Time to stand up and say NO MORE ASSAULT WEAPONS. Second Amendment rights do NOT supersede the rights of our children to live and go to school without fear for their lives.
They may "fear" we are coming after their guns. Well too bad, be as scared as you want. They are right. Fear doesn't change reality. We are coming after ALL of their Assault Weapons.
Time for small minded gun men who have to own guns to feel strong, to find some other way to grow up into a real man.
17
Girls can be just as angry and wild, but they generally do not have guns. Their weapons are their fists and sometimes knives. Violence is endemic in this society of ours. So let schools, at least, be oases where kids can enjoy some peace of mind as they grow into adulthood.
5
Why not give every teacher a gun that fires the ammo veterinarians use to stun dangerous animals, even elephants, gorillas, lions bears, etc,?
4
It might be helpful if you could identify this magical ammo, tell us how we could calibrate the dose, where we could safely keep this loaded gun and still have it handy at moment's notice, and most important to many people - who would pay for all this?
5
Do you know any teachers? (My daughter is a high school math teacher.)
1
As the dad of a teacher who has been teaching kids for several years, I mean no sarcasm when I say, "you have to be kidding." For one thing, you're putting drugs into the schools and a shooter would have the advantage with an AR15 rapid-fire weapon. So, no.
1
When children are carrying the coffins of children as a result of gun violence, it is time for Congress to put in place legislation to help prevent people with a documented history of mental illness from purchasing a gun of any type. Assault weapons by any other name are not for hunters or home protection and their use should be against federal law.
Have a good day.
96
Well Gee these weapons are not assault weapons, they are semi automatic guns. If you want to remove all of them so be it.
1
Mental health is not the problem, Guitarman. GUNS ARE THE PROBLEM.
1
Good luck banning semi automatic rifles. It did not accomplish anything during the Clinton’s years except angering law abiding citizens.
Nothing was accomplished because the problem is the killers - they will always find a way to accomplish their goals with or without semi automatic rifles.