Arming or Not Arming Teachers
- C. David Shepherd
- Jul 24, 2022
- 3 min read
Updated: Aug 5, 2022
On May 24, 2022, yet another school shooting took the lives of nineteen students and two teachers by an 18-year-old, armed with an AR-15 and multiple 30 round magazines. This time the active shooting took place in a little-known place called Uvalde, Texas. As we watched in real time the horror of an attack on innocent defenseless elementary students and teachers, we all think there must be a better way. A way that can be faster. A way that we that can protect both students and teachers at the same time, while allowing law enforcement to respond with sufficient resources, equipment, training, and experience. What do you think? What way would work best or even better than what happened in Uvalde, Texas?
There are other options that meet this criterion. No, it is not creating safe rooms or corners in every classroom. It is not specialized door locking systems or cameras in each room. There are three options, in no order or ranking, that should be considered.
First, a School Resource Officer or SRO, who is an active- duty law enforcement officer
who is permanently assigned to each school, regardless of level of education, such as elementary, middle, high-school, trade, charter, magnet, boarding, language immersion, special education, Montessori, pre-school, community college, university, religious, and postgraduate technical schools. Just because there has not been a n active shooting in each of the numerous type schools, should not discount them from preventive measures.
Second, armed volunteers who were former law enforcement officers or military police. These individuals are armed and previously trained and certified by trained professional for years. This option or countermeasure will the subject of the next blog. Third, arming teachers to carry guns while at school or at a school sanctioned activity. Many people have highlighted the positive points of arming teachers, such as:
Familiarization with the layout of the school which will avoid wasted time in responding.
The teachers are located on campus, thus, the time in responding to the attack is measured in seconds, not minutes or hours.
The teacher may know the active shooter as a current or former student and can visually eliminate the hundreds of students in the school that would slow law enforcement down when identifying students, as they tactically advance through the building.
The teacher may be able to communicate with the shooter to stop the shooter advance, as only a teacher can.
However, very little has been written to explain the challenges with such a seemingly simple act. There are pros and cons that must be weighed by the school board, school administrators, elected officials, the
Parent Teacher Association (PTA), and the community as a whole before any decision can be made. But even before these entities take a vote to approve or disapprove arming teachers, there are many other contributing factors that should be outlined and debated.
These contributing factors include: What are the rules of engagement for the teacher? What is the Use of Force for the teachers? Will the teacher’s union approve arming teachers? What types of firearms will be approved for teachers? How will the teachers be trained? Will all teachers be armed or only a select few? What do you think? Please share your thoughts on hotly debated topic. If yes, provide some reasons why. If no, provide reasons why. The attached article will provide additional questions on the topic of “Arming or Not Arming Teachers"
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