Teachers in Arms

So you want to arm teachers?  I’m sure some already are.

But you want that as policy?  Ok.  Hmmmm.

Is that going to be mandatory?  If so, you’re going to get a lot of retirements.  The current teaching pool did not sign up for weapons training or firefights.  You’ll need to reconstitute a big chunk of the work force to find folks who want to do that and teach and that’s going to be costly.

But given the cost and a mountain of legal issues, let’s assume it’s not mandatory.

If it’s not mandatory, however, you may struggle to appropriately saturate the school with weapons.  Once the shooting starts, it’s a game of seconds.  But let’s say you incentivize (more money) the heck out of the policy and meet your goal of getting 1/2 of all the teachers to carry; everyday. 

We’ve just added 2,000,000 guns to the school system daily.

But we did it.  We have a weapon in the belt of every other teacher.  Good, right?  

Maybe.

Essentially, the shooter always gets the first rounds off.  And if the shooter’s weapon is unmodified, let’s say he gets 2 rounds a second.  In 30 seconds, even with 50% missing their mark, you still haven’t changed the body count from Uvalde or Sandy Hook.  But you did stop it from going further.  Good job.  Seriously.

And what if there are two shooters like Columbine….

Let’s not do two shooters.  That seems impossible.

But there’s still a problem with the one shooter.  If 1/2 the school’s teachers are armed, what percentage of those teachers are going to run into fire from a crazy person?  Barricading in their rooms to protect their students, I can get my head around that.  But moving yourself into position to take on semi-automatic weapon fire from a crazy person; precious few people can do that even when trained.

So maybe getting a weapon on target in 30 seconds with 1/2 your teachers armed is now going to be a minute or two or never.  You’re asking a lot of teachers to instantly transition to gun fighters.

I forgot the body armor; that’s going to make things more difficult.  I’m pretty sure that’ll mean heavier weapons, better targeting and being able to stand in a free fire zone with – again – a  crazy person unloading a semi automatic weapon dressed in body armor.

Again, we are assuming single person, no bump-stock or full auto weapons.  Assuming.

Which sends you down another rabbit hole; how many teachers will want to work in an environment that is laden with weapons? How many will be terrified knowing Mrs. QAnon is packing?

Your work force will change irrevocably to a mindset of danger and fear.  And as a parent, I’m pretty sure I’d opt out.  I know teachers, love them, but no, not a group I want armed around my kids.

And I know this sounds minor, but who is liable if one of those weapons get lost or gets discharged by accident injuring or killing folks?  We just put 2,000,000 guns in the schools; it’s going to happen.

If the municipality is liable, that’s going to be expensive given the number of weapons introduced.  And the insurance company is going to require a lot of costly training.

Or is it all on the teacher?  To defend their kids to the death and be liable if they get it wrong?  If it is, I think you’re rapidly back to the saturation issue.  Are teachers really going to put their career and house on the line so they can carry a gun to school? 

But let’s say that you’ve done it.  You’ve solved all those problems and a dozen I haven’t thought about.  You did it!  No more school shootings, ever.  Good job.

Do you think those shooters aren’t just going to migrate to other soft targets?  Hospitals, nursing homes, restaurants, houses of worship, supermarkets; random mass shootings are happening everywhere already.

So use the same solution, right?  It worked for schools, sure.

All we have to do is become a fully weaponized society, impenetrably hardened against itself.

That is not freedom.  That is not what the 2nd amendment was supposed to do.

Here is a different idea with a lot of ‘wins’ and in the long run, probably a lot cheaper.

And we can do it without talking about the 2nd; so, maybe possible.

12 students per class room maximum – let’s fund that.  Give both students and teachers the time to know each other.  To engage on not just at the academic level, but the social as well.  Teachers are incredibly well trained and perfectly placed to identify children who are at risk not just for violence but hunger, abuse, homelessness, etc, etc. 

Fund first class social workers and a mental health systems that is needed in every school.  In fact, over-fund them for a generation; we are a broken nation and have a lot to work on.

Normalize the engagement with these systems so every kid has a safe place to vent, to meditate, to pray, to access services, to just be.  And make that system easy and effective for teachers to engage with when they do identify children at risk.

Stop forcing kids through a single meat grinding system filled with endless hierarchy and meaningless grades.  Teach to proficiency and mastery levels but assess only in the later years.  Children are being processed by relentless grades and evaluations which quickly look like garbage in, garbage out.

And this meat grinder shreds so many kids that we call “divergent learners”. Fund first-class trade schools so kids can learn on their feet and with their hands.  Make spaces for every kid to succeed.

Teach firearm safety in every school and in every year.  Many kids are killed because they have no idea how to handle a firearm and/or have no respect for what they are handling.  Firearms are and will be ubiquitous in our country.  Don’t hide it, teach it.  Teach the utmost respect that every firearm deserves.  Teach that anything less is akin to spitting in someone’s face.

Match the school schedule more closely to the normal adult work day and year.  Use the extra time to remove all homework.  Kids need go home and be with their families.  The dinner table is being destroyed by excessive amounts homework and the thousand ‘extra’ school activities needing hours of driving or worse, more screen time.  School is responsible for fragmenting family life and they could transition to the opposite.

Use the extra time to also teach and demonstrate civics.  Community projects should be normal activities for our students.  It gives them ownership of the spaces they live in and respect for the people and history that created them.  And to keep that going, let them add their own history.

American gun violence is obscene.  Yet, almost one believes that gun laws are going to change.

Weaponizing teachers as policy to deter a crazy person, wearing body armor, firing a semi automatic weapon at best reduces body count, not the number of shooters created.

We have to do better than that.

We are failing the most basic tenet of being an adult, protecting children.