Arming school teachers is a way to provide protection to students, but there are some students that believe that teachers are there to educate and not there to defend students. Arming teachers can affect the school’s environment, a student’s mental health and lead to accidents from improper training.
Teachers should be armed with guns because having weapons can protect students, make students feel safe and secured, and giving teachers guns would give them the opportunity to respond to a criminal faster than the police.
Arming teachers can help protect students
President Donald Trump’s support of arming school staff was to prevent tragedies like the shooting in Parkland Florida, has stirred up much debate among state lawmakers. Some states like Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Maryland, Kentucky, Missouri, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Washington had bills introduced to them to make it easier for them to carry a concealed weapon. After the 2012 shooting in Sandy Hook, states like Georgia, Kansas, South Dakota, Tennessee and Texas passed a law which allowed for employees to carry firearms. Missouri, South Dakota, Tennessee and Texas have programs that train school employees who volunteer to carry firearms and serve as school protection officers. School employees from Idaho, Kansas and Wyoming are allowed to bring guns only if they receive permission from the school. New Hampshire is the only state that allows anyone to carry a gun into school but they also must get permission from a school authority. Hawaii is the only state with no rules on who may have firearms in school. People in Hawaii don’t have to ask for permission to bring in a weapon. A state law that was passed in 2013 at South Dakota had a least two school districts in the state that had launched a “school sentinel program” which allows the arming of school employees, security guards or volunteers. After the Sandy Hook Shooting, a school district in Arkansas wanted to hire an extra full-time security guard but could not afford it. Instead, they trained more than a dozen teachers and staff members as armed guards. Before carrying a firearm on campus, employees must undergo at least 80 hours of use of force, weapons, proficiency, legal aspects and first aid classes. The Clarkson School District has had teachers, janitors, computer technicians and other staff members ready to respond in the case of a shooting.
All these states started to become aware of the safety of their students in school due to these school shootings that have been happening in their schools or other areas this caused them to arm teachers. Many other states have passed laws so that teacher can carry weapons into school but only if they receive permission from a school authority. In Hawaii employees don’t have to ask for permission because there are no rules on who can carry a weapon into school. In South Dakota there was a program in their state that has been launched which allowed employees, security guards or even volunteers to help. It would be beneficial if most states had this program because it could possibly help save the life of many students and teachers. There are many schools that could not afford to hire someone to protect their students form intruders or criminals, because of this they started to do whatever they can do protect students. Schools started training teachers, employees, and even inviting volunteers so that they could have someone that would be there to properly take care and defend the students in case of another school shooting.
Arming teachers can make students feel safe and secure
A school is a place where students not only grow mentally and socially, but also learn about the world around them. Students should feel safe but not worried about going to school. When there is a shooting, teachers should be able to carry a gun in school in order to protect their students’ against an armed intruder. Students feel safer knowing that teachers are armed with a gun because students believe that guns are better weapons than using pencils and rulers to defend themselves. Callisburg has 70 public school districts in Texas that allows for teachers, janitors, and administrators to carry concealed weapons on school grounds. Community members are against the idea of arming teachers but in students coming from rural towns in Texas, are accepting the idea of providing teacher with guns. “I feel really safe, knowing that, I can come to school and if there’s an incident that does happen that they’ll be able to protect us,” said a student from Callisburg High School.
Students should feel safe going to school knowing that the teachers would be there to protect them just in case if the intruder were to come into school. Students should not feel stressed out about going into school thinking that they would not want to go anymore because they feel that one day an intruder might come into the building. If the teacher were not armed it can make the students panic if there was an intruder to come into the school. If students are panicking in a situation in where the school is on lockdown it can make it difficult for the teacher to calm them down. If teachers were allowed to bring in weapons it can make the students not worry about going to school anymore. Teachers should always let the students know that they are always safe environment and that if there is something going wrong that they should stay calm and keep quiet.
Arming teachers could be a quicker response when dealing with a criminal
Teachers have the responsibility of teaching their students and protecting them during school hours. A shooting in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Aaron Feis, a high school coach threw himself in the way of flying bullets to save the lives of his students. The coach was sent to the hospital and it was later announced that he was dead. If he were armed with a gun he wouldn’t have to use himself and a shield to protect the students and he would have been alive. In South Dakota, school administrators say they trust law enforcement to protect them but they are too far away. If a shooting were to take place at school, employees would have to defend themselves. “We’re over 20 minutes from any police force being able to respond to an event, so with that in mind is one of the reasons why we decided to move forward.” , said Ryan Bruns. When a teacher reports about a school shooting to the police it takes about 30 minutes for the police officers to take action. It is best for teachers to be trained and allowed to use guns in schools when it is necessary. It would be quicker if teachers were to respond instead of police officers.
Teachers should be able to protect students and themselves in an intruder alert situation. They should not sacrifice themselves when students will still get hurt after the teacher has been harmed by the criminal. Teachers should be armed so that they themselves feel safe and that the students also feel safe and not be in a situation in which they cannot defend themselves. If the students teacher gets injured or harmed it could put the students in risk of getting harmed by the criminal.
Arming teachers can negatively affect a student’s mental health and the school’s climate
Guns are common in our lives, but not just for hunting and keeping the deer population under control. Our society today is filled with video games and movies that romanticize guns, even military-style weapons. The reality we deal with is filled with mass shootings that happen so often that we have lost count in the number of lives that we have lost. Many people have become worried but some just accept it as a fact of life. Mass school shootings have reinforced the misperception that schools in general are unsafe; arming teacher would heighten levels of anxiety and negatively affect a school’s climate. School counselors, social workers, and psychologist all have a powerful impact on the development of our student’s mental health. School administrators, parents, and policymakers seek to build safer after school communities, understanding of the implications of arming teacher on the school environment. Schools need staff member to support all students both early in their development and throughout their high school years. Educators want to impact their students’ future in a positive way; they don’t want to serve as a security guard in school. Their job is to help students learn the skills to ask questions and look for solutions in the world around them. Introducing guns to students will not make them feel safer and bringing in weapons will not make the school a positive teaching and learning environment.
We must address mental- health issues, providing students with access to licensed counselors, social workers, and psychologist, and training educators to better identify the needs of students. We need to offer children with the tools that they need to be healthy; we also need to provide them with more opportunities to learn about other cultures and empathize with those who are different. When we surround kids in a society where they feel safe, have a sense of belonging, and know how to empathize, they will create a world that is safer.
Improper training can lead to students getting harmed
Even though teachers are capable of using firearms, there are no evidence-based guidelines that are available to help us develop the necessary training for teachers and that instruction that is needed to maintain teacher’s awareness so that they would be ready when a criminal strikes. There is not enough information to prove that whether arming teachers would reduce or increase the risks for themselves and their students when they are in a situation of a crisis. Most law enforcement experts argue that teachers should not carry guns. Teacher lack the knowledge of handling weapons that trained law enforcement personnel receive. The teachers are there to educate and they are not there to act as police officers in the incident of a shooting. Giving guns to teachers could possibly lead to disastrous events.
Teacher should continue educating students and not defending them. They should leave the job of taking care of the students to the police, because they know how to handle the situation better than a teacher. Police officers have way more training than a teacher does so if there is a situation in where the teacher has to defend the class the officer could help the teacher in a professional manner.
Increasing the amount of guns can increase the amount of students getting hurt
Research has shown that increased gun access and gun possession are not associated with protection from violence, which suggest that increasing the presence of guns in the hand of civilians in school, may backfire. An issue with teachers carrying guns is that it makes them primary targets. If the shooter sees the teacher with a gun, they might shoot the teacher leaving the students to fight on their own. A problem with arming teachers with guns is that is they are in a situation in where a student is angry and knows that the teacher is armed. The student might decide to grab the gun from the teacher when they are not looking and decide to shoot the student that is making them angry or even shoot the teacher. Arming teachers could put the teachers and the students in risk of getting harmed.
Arming teachers can make criminals see teacher as their primary target once they get the teacher they could leave the children feeling defenseless having to deal with the criminal themselves. Arming teachers can help protect students from criminals and give students a sense of security. It’s important for students to feel safe and welcomed when going to school. Teachers should be properly trained and armed so that they can properly take care of students without harming the students.
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