In the wake of another mass shooting, politicians are conflicted on what policies to pass. They are committed to organizations but they also have voters pulling them another in another direction.
At a recent press conference, President Trump said that he feels teachers should be armed and that we need to end gun-free zones because those zones tell a shooter, “let’s go in and let’s attack because bullets aren’t coming back at us.”
This should not be the solution. The current problem is loose gun laws and making guns more readily available would only add to the problem.
Expecting teachers to provide their students with the best education, report to social services when they see any signs of child negligence and now possibly burdening them with their students’ safety and potentially their lives is too much to ask for.
Teachers do not go to school and become teachers so they eventually have to learn how to kill a former student who is now shooting at the rest of the school.
In response to President Trump’s comments, teachers across the nation have started a movement, #ArmMeWith. In this social media campaign, teachers are asking to be armed, not with guns, but with books, social workers, resources, funding and smaller classroom sizes.
They are appalled at the fact that the government is even thinking of burdening them with the responsibility of guns.
Brittany Wheaton, a teacher and one of the founders of the movement, expressed her concerns, “I went to college to educate children, not because I wanted to kill another human. If I wanted a job where I was responsible for carrying a firearm, I would have taken a different career path.”
Asking teachers to possibly take down a shooter should not even be discussed. Bringing in more guns adds to the problem. How can we expect students to feel safe if we just add more guns to their already tainted schools?
“Teachers already shoulder a huge burden when it comes to educating properly, due to lack of funding, support and resources and making sure their students are taken care of emotionally,” Wheaton said. “Asking us to now carry the burden of having the responsibility to kill is irreparably damaging, even if we never have to discharge our weapon.”
Instead, we need to be discussing gun laws, regulations and just how easy it is for these shooters to obtain guns. Arming teachers will only add to the problem and will not improve the safety of our schools.
Nicte Hernandez can be reached at [email protected] or @nicteh7on Twitter.
diaz // Mar 7, 2018 at 9:53 pm
Here, in the 21st century, I am saddened to see so many people who don”t accept evolution. But, teachers?! If there were any way to fire a teacher who taught that evolution is less than accurate, I would do it. Evolution has become the most important unifying concept in biology. Without it, biology is chaos. What would you do to a teacher telling students that smoking is healthy? How do you handle climate change deniers? What if one of your teachers taught that slavery was a good thing and that African-Americans were less than human and should be slaves? Suppose your science teachers were telling students that continents do not move or that humans and dinosaurs cohabited the Earth? Exactly how you handle it depends on you, your teachers, and your district rules. There”s no wiggle room here, though. Your teachers must stop telling students that evolution is wrong or even hinting at it – or else!