For all the “Arm the teacher” advocates out there in the wake of the Florida school shootings, let’s hear from a recently retired teacher:
After dedicating 18+ years of my life to teaching high school before retiring this year, I can say with authority that arming teachers with weapons is a very bad and dangerous idea. While some of my former colleagues may disagree, I assert that only more tragedy will occur on an armed-and-ready-to-shoot campus.
Most people who propose arming teachers have not set foot on a high school campus since they graduated. So let me enlighten you. Schools are over crowded. My last teaching assignment was at an at-risk school – the largest Title I school in Nevada. I had 230 students. Most classes exceeded 40 students. Desks were jammed so close together that in an effort to assist students, I had to squeeze between desks. In that type of proximity, a motivated student could have disarmed me in seconds.
While most of my students were great kids, I had legitimate gang…
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just drive, will you? 
Just because you feel strongly on a topic or have anecdotal experience does not make you an expert. If overcrowding is an issue as well in this former teacher’s area then it should be equally addressed. In addition a potential solution is not only the arming of teachers, but armed guards as well.
There is one simply truth in this argument: the ONLY way to stop a school attack(or ANY attack) is to have a good guy with equal capacity for violence step up and end it. When that violence escalates to firearms in the hands of the evil party, common sense denotes the good party must be given the same advantage in order to level the playing field.
We protect every other public area with armed guards. We should do the same for our children’s schools. Public officials, banks, malls, shopping centers, etc. In all of these areas we of course have the occasional nut-job who brings violence to the table but it can be dealt with quickly and effectively, thus the rate of such incidents (and their resultant death toll) is significantly lowered. These measures are effective. They work not only in theory but in practice as well. There is no cure for violence. There is no cure for mass shootings through endless regulation. The issue here rests solely with the fact that humans are flawed creatures. You can’t stop criminals from breaking the law, but you can give citizens the tools to deal with the criminals if the need arises.
“Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” – Ben Franklin
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Thanks for your input. You make some valid points. Thanks for reading!
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