As a gunman stalked the students and teachers of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL, on Valentines Day educators across the United States had already reported stress levels of desperate proportions from years of deteriorating schools, working conditions, and national disrespect.
Then came Parkland, the latest mass shooting, followed quickly by some of the most outrageous feigned “solutions” ever proposed. In response to a problem that threatens the right of America’s children to live: the proliferation of easily accessible guns is so pervasive that the rest of the civilized world stands aghast at our collective violence against children. Political leaders have recommended, even voted to, “harden” our schools with more guns and prison-style security measures. Political leaders are quick to offer solutions that offer the illusion of safety, ranging from more metal detectors, armed security officers, even arming educators; all of which lead us more in the direction of schools that model prisons, feeding into the school-to-prison pipeline.
The President, the Governor and legislature of Florida, the NRA, and numerous national conservative legislators all are supporting “hardening” our schools. The "hardening" of our schools includes arming teachers, which would add (using the President’s 20% figure) 700,000 firearms in the schools our children attend-- While educators across the country try to soothe children’s fears as “fake” shooter drills pump the sense of fear even higher among our children.
The BATs Quality of Work Life Team (QWL) has tracked and quantified the results of poor working conditions and problems of school workplace bullying for the last five years, revealing the parameters of the stress levels educators and their students were experiencing before Stoneman Douglas. The news was not good - 61% of educators find their work stressful often and 1 in 4 educators report feeling in ill health 11 or more days per month- this is double the national average of any other occupation.
With the current push to consider arming educators in response to the recent school shooting in Parkland Florida, the BAT Quality of Work Life (QWL) team felt it necessary to try to frame the position of educators. In an informal poll run from the facebook page and twitter account of The Badass Teachers Association, nearly 3000 teachers responded. The results are a striking reminder of how much teachers love their students, their schools, and their communities.
The vast majority of educators answered that they did not agree with arming teachers. In fact, nine out ten (83%) strongly disagreed with arming educators. Only 7% of educators responding believed that arming educators made sense. In fact, rather than making schools safer, 87% of respondents believed arming educators would make schools less safe. The vast majority of respondents also believe that arming educators would be harmful to the learning environment, and three out four educators would not be willing to learn to use a weapon or to carry a concealed weapon.
Not only did respondents believe that arming educators and allowing for concealed carry on school grounds was a bad idea, but they also answered that such steps would make them consider leaving the profession. 80% of respondents answered that they would not work at a school that allowed educators to carry a concealed firearm and 81% said they would consider leaving the profession if the step was taken to allow educators to carry concealed firearms.
In narrative responses to the survey, educator opposition to the idea of arming educators or allowing for concealed carry was also readily apparent. Many educators stated they would refuse to have anything to do with guns, that guns in school under any circumstances would create more danger, not less; that guns would lead to accidents, even potential shootouts with lethal consequences. Educators cited research that more guns lead to more deaths. Educators were also clear that they expect school safety to be addressed, and that arming educators, or the arguments to arm educators, is nothing more than a distraction from taking meaningful steps. Educators did indicate being receptive to additional security measures on school grounds including guards, metal detectors, and limited entrances.
Some of our respondents who are gun owners gave us incredible insight with the following comments:
“I have undergone concealed carry training for personal reasons, but do not believe that weapons belong in our schools unless they are carried by officers of the law. Teachers are paid to teach, not secure schools. I also worry about the teacher that is armed but fails to act in a school shooter situation because of fear. Will they be ostracized the way the police were that did not go into the recent school shooting? They are teachers, not law enforcement.”
“I'm a legal firearm owner who doesn't support arming teachers. Last point: my teaching might suffer because I can't give my students my full attention. I must be in a state of hypervigilance to make sure my gun is secure at all times.”
So it would seem that educators, those who daily teach ABC's and long division, do not believe it would be good for their students to have an educator who is armed as part of their job description. Turning schools into armed camps with a profusion of guns would NOT be the best environment for childhood learning, and specifically for children of color who experience gun violence at a higher rate than their white peers.
The responses to one question in particular: I would work in a school where educators could carry concealed weapons. 82% of the respondents said they disagreed with this statement. If we choose to harden our schools the educator shortage of a couple of months ago will pale in comparison to what is to come. Raising the question of whether we will be able to staff our schools at all if we choose to further “harden” them.
However, that may be the goal of those who support this new prison-like vision of what was once the heart and center of our communities and the daily home away from home for our kids. As BATs and the Quality of Worklife team documented not long ago, many of the people advocating for the militarization of our schools are the same people who advocating for punishing teachers/students, school closures, lowered educator training, and threats as a way to “reform” our schools. This new proposal fits perfectly into the ever-escalating disruptions these “reformers” continue to advocate for.
Everything about “hardening” our schools violates nearly every principle that teachers uphold. Granted we want our students to be safe, but to take up firearms in the cause of doing so is something of an anathema to teachers. The very idea repulsed many of the educators who responded. There has also been heightened concern, with good reason, by educators of color that carrying a weapon will also make them more vulnerable to gun violence.
The potential for abuse is frightening. Using a firearm where there are panicked, running children will be a looming disaster. Although the majority of mass school shootings have taken place in white suburban school districts, not all of the students or the faculty there may be white. People of color are targeted more frequently in situations where violence has been committed and who is to say an intervening police officer or SWAT team personnel may mistakenly fire a weapon at a non-white educator holding a handgun they were licensed to carry and who was protecting their class. For all the alleged potential good arming teachers might do, there is a much greater potential for harm to the very people we are trying to protect the children. For teachers this is a bridge we do not cross. There has to be another way.
As Otto Sharmer, an MIT physicist and professor, says, “We are collectively creating results none of us want.” So, how do we create results we all do want?
NOW …our children’s lives, and the lives of all who teach and work with them … are absolutely at stake as a result of our political inability to address gun violence. The survivors of the Stoneman Douglas shootings and the survivors of the attacks that came before know what needs to be done and educators stand with them. Emma Gonzales stated, “do we not deserve the right to live anymore ?... Is this a protect guns not lives moment? Not today and Never again. “
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