Teachers are required to educate the youth, but is it finally time for them to be required to carry around guns as well?
A students only concern should be about whether or not they are doing well in class, but due to the rise of school shootings, it has become an issue as to whether or not teachers should be required to carry around firearms for protection.
Nearly 73 percent of United States educators say they oppose the idea of allowing teachers and staff to carry firearms in schools according to Gallup survey.
Brian Mas, Special Education teacher, has been teaching for about four years. Mr. Mas believes that the purpose of having guns in school should be a role strictly for security guards who conduct comensive hours of training to be able to use these firearms.
“Teachers are not there to keep the school safe, they are there to teach.” said Mr. Mas, “I don’t feel that teachers should be put in that type of situation, we went into this profession to teach. Now in today's world it feels like we have to be doing much more,”
Conservative politicians and even our own President Donald Trump are all advocates in allowing teachers to carry guns in schools. President Trump has made a proposal to arm teachers, he believes teachers should be trained in using firearms to aid in any attacks in schools.
After a school shooting happens, every school district reviews what is known as a emergency procedure. These procedures consist of closing all doors and gathering in the corner of the classroom and hiding until the threat is no longer a risk but is it enough in protecting students from a disaster such as a school shooting.
Centereach High School has seen its share of threats just within the past decade. Declan Lavin, a graduate from the class of ‘17, is a victim to both of the gun threats that have occured in the halls of Centereach.
The room was quiet, you could hear a pin drop fall, you could see the sweat dripping from students who were afraid that that day could've been there last. This is how afraid the students were during the most recent gun threat at Centereach high school.
“The vice principal came over the announcement system. She screamed into the PA, We are in a lockdown, this is not a drill, this is not a drill!” said Lavin.
A victim, a survivor?, or a case of a false threat that sent pin needles down the spines of hundreds of students from Centereach high school. Either way, Declan is one of many that have faced this fear of having his safety be compromised at his own high school.
“This experience enhanced my feeling on whether or not teachers should have guns because it made me feel stronger that they should not.” said Lavin.
The Gallup survey found that at least 20 percent of teachers agree with arming teachers and a Pennsylvania school district has already implemented this policy. A school district in Schuylkill county is the first state in the U.S. to allow employees to carry guns in school. Staff will be allowed to carry handguns once they have taken the certification and proper training requirements.
There is a lot of training that goes into arming teachers with guns. A lot of training that police officer Edward Dowd of Stony Brook University has gone through just to be armed himself to protect the students of Stony Brook.
Dowd stated “We have to be qualified 3 times a year and if you don’t pass they can take your gun away. There are constant updates and that is something that has to take effect every time a teacher goes into training.”
Although guards and policemen in college are allowed to carry firearms, security guards in high schools aren’t. At Least 28 States in the U.S. have policies that allow security personnel to carry firearms in school according to the Education Commision of The States.
Angela Marzocca is a public school teacher of the Lindenhurst School District. Marzocca believes that there are other alternatives to keeping schools safer.
“I would feel much safer with my security guards to have a gun because they are retired policemen, trained to know what to do in emergencies , and also they are screened already.” Said Marzocca.
Although, there that has been a lot of backlash against allowing teachers to carry guns, there are advocates that feel strongly about allowing this to happen in schools. Advocates such as, Brian Riggs, who has worked at the Suffolk Trap and skeet shooting range for a number of years. Riggs has seen his number of pro-gun right activist that love to shoot their guns at the range. Working there for over 3 years, Riggs has become trigger happy as well and disagrees with the idea of not allowing teachers and staff to carry firearms.
Riggs stated, “I believe if a teacher is qualified and chooses to carry a gun they should be allowed to.”
Many argue that letting teachers carry guns in school is unsafe but Riggs thinks otherwise. He believes that there is only one option to stopping a threat and that's by using the force of a gun.
“The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. If there is a completely unarmed staff everyone in the school is defenseless and sitting ducks.” said Riggs. There are a number of people that feel there are alternatives to securing our schools more properly and it’s not by putting guns in the hands of educators.
Riane Bawalan, an FIT graduate stated, “I think there should be authorized personnel at each school at all times that can carry and use guns. Not necessarily teachers” said Bawalan.
Similar to how most others feel on both sides of this heated debate, Riane Bawalan believe that “It’s not less guns. It’s putting guns in the right hands.”
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