The Shred of Light Within: Arming Teachers to Prevent the Crisis of School Shootings in the United States
Should Teachers be Armed in the School to Prevent School Shootings?
Persuasive Essay
Eric He
“Books not bullets!” School shootings in America have become a national crisis in recent years. More and more people have been standing in the street to protest against school shootings. Others might argue that this is the price of freedom, but, in fact, few countries have the same problem as the United States. There are more and more school shootings that take place in the United States than it did in the past. School Shootings has stirred up a tremendous amount of controversies regarding whether teachers should be armed with guns to protect students. As a result, it is important to know about the pros and cons of arming the teachers.
School shootings have existed for a long time in America; however, the problem is still not solved until today. In 2018, headlines about school shootings started appearing at major news sites. “ ‘There have already been 18 school shootings in the US this year’ — ABC News. ‘18 school shootings in 45 days — Florida massacre is one of many tragedies in 2018.’—CNBC ‘18 school shootings in the US in 2018’— AFP ‘U.S. averages a school shooting every 2.5 days in 2018’ — Politico ‘We're Averaging One School Shooting Every 60 Hours In 2018’ — Huffington Post” (Investor's Business Daily). From those headlines of news companies, the school shooting problem in America is clearly an issue.
Indisputably, on no account should it be denied that with more and more school shootings taking place in America, families began to be concerned about whether their children are safe in school. “According to The Washington Post database, over 208,000 students have experienced gun violence since Columbine. That is equivalent to approximately 10,947 students experiencing gun violence every year” (Clarke). To put it differently, protecting students is certainly a concern for millions of families in America. The statistics make people panic about whether their children will experience School Shooting one day.
Some people claim that arming staff members in school is certainly a good idea to ensure the safety of schools; however, it is not practical at all. In fact, having more guns would make the situation get worse. “On April 20, 1999, two students of Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo. brought multiple weapons to their school, including a semi-automatic handgun, and began shooting fellow students. 13 people were killed and more than 20 wounded. At the time, Columbine was the worst high school shooting in U.S. history” (Clarke). The situation would be worse if there are already guns in the school. It is because if a teacher carelessly left their weapon in a place that students might have access to it, the gun might be used by student to start a school shooting.
Having stronger gun laws should also be considered. “Elliot Fineman, chief executive of the National Gun Victims Action Council, said the response to the Parkland shooting by arming teachers is flawed.‘The way to stop the school shootings is to have sane gun laws like other developed countries,’ he said. Arming teacher is a defensive measure, Mr. Fineman said, but preventive measures need to be taken” (Gomez). Namely, arming the staff by giving them guns could help the school have self-defense ability, but the main problem is more about how to prevent the School Shooting taking place.
One problem with arming teachers is their inexperience with firearms. “ ‘Putting in more resource officers - that's additional security- we feel that makes it safer,’ said Paul Marshall, of McGowan Program Administrators. ‘It's different when you start pushing it to arm teachers, volunteers, voluntary security’” (Frankel). Arming staffs are not enough for the school shooting issue. Instead, Law Enforcement should consider training their officers particularly for dealing with school crises rather than other strict aspects.
There are other good ideas such as hiring specially trained officers. “Districts that do hire resource officers should do so with open eyes. The officer's role should be clear and limited, with a focus on creating a safe and healthy environment. Ordinary school discipline should not result in formal intervention by law enforcement, and the officer should be trained specifically to deal with the age group enrolled at the school” (“School Officer”). For the most part, arming the teachers in the school is not always a good solution. People should consider more about preventing tragedies to happen. Reaching a conclusion that arming teachers is unilateral and requires to be given a second thought for the reason that there are some specific circumstances under which other aspects, such as hiring more psychologists, counselors and social workers, having stronger gun laws, and hiring resource officers are at least of equal significance and should be taken into account.
How about hiring more mentors? Comparatively, although some teachers in the school also hold positive opinions towards the course of self-defending by using guns, they ignore the fact that there are other better ways of preventing school shooting tragedies. “Instead, schools should consider hiring more psychologists, counselors and social workers who can work with students to solve problems before they get too big. Students who lose control at school often need help, when all that an inadequately trained resource officer can provide are handcuffs” (“School Officer”). In other words, school shooters themselves are likely to be the students in the school. By providing a solution of hiring more psychologists, counselors and social workers they can serve as mentors to help the students who struggle with depression, and other psychological diseases.
Arming staff members is not effective or useful. Incorrectly arming teachers would carry negative outcomes. Arming staff members in school may not be as persuasive enough as people think it is, and there are potential dangers and limitations of giving teacher guns. Herald thinks that “Schools that add an officer typically experience an uptick in suspensions, expulsions, and arrests, but that doesn't mean they are making the school any safer” (Portland Press Herald). Videlicet, arming staff members does not seem to be practical. If School Shootings happen in school, the potential danger is that staff members do not have any experience of fighting against the attacker. Correspondingly, the fact of arming staffs in the school is not a practical idea like Thweatt mentions, “As we know, ‘hard’ targets like federal buildings have some means of resistance. Security guards, sheriff's deputies or other similarly armed individuals are regularly employed at many schools. Often, they are limited in number, usually because of cost. The Guardian Plan simply grafts a modest stipend onto a current employee, giving the school district not only quality protection but also the financial flexibility to have multiple guards — that is, quantity, too” (Thweatt). In essence, Thweatt points out that the downside of arming the teachers. Comparing to not arming teachers, it is a more dangerous job for teachers. It will cause a problem of the increase of the salary of the school employees. After all, School Shooting is more complex than people think it is. Most of the times, arming teachers is usually not the solution to solving the problem. Sometimes schools should think more about how to prevent School Shooting and find a feasible solution.
All in all, according to the aforementioned discussions, it is not difficult to notice that the issue School Shooting is extraordinary complicated and requires a comprehensive analysis. School Shootings has become a national problem in the United States. Preventing School Shooting is not only the responsibility of schools but also the responsibility of society. Arming teacher is a solution to the problem, simultaneously, it has many disadvantages and even dangers are extraordinarily complicated and requires a comprehensive analysis. It is unreasonable to neglect those situations where arming teachers are irrational. As a result, I disagree with the statement of arming teachers to prevent school shootings. All in all, I have to concede that arming teachers is an effective idea in most of the cases; simultaneously, it is not wise to neglect the drawbacks of the arming the teachers; other better solutions may work better than arming the teachers in certain circumstances. Only a step-by-step analysis can we reach the best solution to prevent School Shootings.
Bibliography
Frankel, Todd C. "Plans to Arm Teachers may Face Big Roadblock." Washington Post,
27 May. 2018, pp. A.1. SIRS Issues Researcher, Web, Oct 26, 2018.
It is good sources because it gives actual examples. Not only the actual examples, but the author also shows his points by having many arguments. This article reports on the reaction of insurance companies to the proposal to arm school employees, noting that they are worried that "more guns in schools might not only fail to stop mass shootings but lead to more accidents."
Gomez, Melissa. "Training to Carry Firearms Where they'Re Not Allowed." New York
Times, 13 Jun. 2018, pp. A.15. SIRS Issues Researcher, Web, Oct 26, 2018.
The goal of the program, called School-Age Trauma Training, is 'to enhance a bystander's ability to take decisive, life-saving action to assist victims with traumatic injuries,' this article provides details of the program, which will "include training on medical triage and mass casualty survival techniques." It can help me with the problem that there is a lot of information about the practical problem when facing the problems of arming the teachers.
Investor's Business Daily. "No, There Haven't Been 18 School Shootings This Year — Not Even
Close". Proquest, 2019,
https://search.proquest.com/docview/2002299866/7F9947B161DD4EDCPQ/10?accounti
d=338. Accessed 31 Jan 2019.
Although the author’s point is about how the new companies distort the truth in order to ban the guns, I am still able to scrape the useful information from the article about the headline news’ attitude about the school shooting to support my idea.
Kendall, Clarke. "Taking A Stand Against Gun Violence". Proquest.Com, 2018,
https://search.proquest.com/docview/2031121707/3ED88501BF0E4F3EPQ/11?accountid
=338. Accessed 31 Jan 2019.
The author strongly expresses his point about school shootings in America. He has a different way of approaching his idea about school shooting by providing ample details. I took his example of speeches against school shooting to make my thesis stronger.
"School Officers have to be Ready for the Ordinary." Portland Press Herald, 12 Sep.
2018, pp. A.1. SIRS Issues Researcher, Web. Oct 26, 2018.
This viewpoint article points out that the vast majority of police officers in schools "will never be involved in a shooting" but they have to be prepared to deal with "students who are angry, frustrated and anxious on a daily basis." It is a great paper for me to look at because the author has a clear topic and a strong statement.
Thweatt, David. "I'm a Superintendent. My School District Decided to Arm Teachers."
Washington Post - Blogs, 23 Mar. 2018, pp. n/a. SIRS Issues Researcher, Web, Oct
26,2018.
The author explains the reasons why his small district in Texas decided to arm qualified teachers and provides details on how his program works. It is a very detailed paper that consists of reasons and standpoints towards the issue. I think I can acquire a lot of information from it.