On March 27, six people, including three children, at The Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee, lost their lives after an armed intruder shot through its glass doors and seamlessly made their way through the school. Last week, thousands of students across the country coordinated a walkout demanding stricter gun laws. Now, lawmakers are proposing a solution that—according to officials—only adds fuel to the fire: more guns.
On Wednesday, Republican lawmakers in Tennessee advanced a bill through a House committee that would give teachers the ability to carry firearms in their classrooms, a move one Democratic official finds utterly disturbing.
“Our community is still grieving last week’s mass shooting at Covenant Elementary that took six lives—their solution is more guns,” said Democratic Rep. Justin Jones, who represents areas of Nashville. “Shameful.”
Jones was also one of the two House Democrats expelled from the state House of Representatives last week for leading protests advocating for tighter gun laws.
Arming K12 teachers is a strategy many believe would help add an extra layer of security in schools. Like other methods of hardening, such as adding surveillance and metal detectors, it is thought to help prevent and deter severe threats. However, one expert says it’s simply not in a teacher’s job description to carry such a responsibility.
“Teachers want to be armed with textbooks, technology and innovative ways to teach,” says Kenneth Trump, president of the National School Safety and Security Services. “The vast majority do not go into the education field to play the role of a police officer. If school leaders want an armed presence on campus, they should provide for a trained, fully commissioned police officer who has specialized training to work in schools.”
Instead, Trump advises superintendents and school boards to obtain written opinions from their insurance carriers and district attorneys on the risks and liability of arming non-law enforcement school employees, per a blog post.
“Arming teachers is asking them to perform a public safety function, which is a specialized role requiring more than simply training the teacher for a couple dozen hours on how to shoot, clean and holster a gun,” he says. “We do not send police officers out into our streets and communities to perform complex public safety roles with such a little training and an entirely different professional skill set and mindset, as some propose for arming our teachers.”
If the bill does become law, Tennessee districts would be faced with some difficult questions, according to Trump’s blog, such as:
- Is your district prepared to prevent and manage situations where a teacher loses, misplaces or has their firearm stolen while on campus?
- What will the protocol be if an accidental shooting occurs?
- What type of firearms training would the district provide on a regular basis? Will certification and recertification be part of the district’s professional development?
“School districts considering arming teachers and school staff with guns would take on significant responsibility and potential liabilities that I firmly believe are beyond the expertise, knowledge base, experience, and professional capabilities of most school boards and administrators,” the blog reads.
“There is a huge difference between having trained, certified and commissioned law enforcement officers who are full-time, career public-safety professionals that are armed and assigned the duty of protecting students and staff versus having teachers, custodians, cafeteria workers and other non-public safety professionals packing a gun in school and tasked with providing a public safety function for hundreds or thousands of children.”
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