by Nicholas Mitchell, Ph.D.
On February 14, 2018, 17 people were murdered and 17 people were wounded at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.[1] None of the victims had walked into their school that day expecting to be the victim of a mass shooting. None of the family members of the victims said goodbye to their loved ones that morning expecting it to be the last time. Most people never will experience the horror that the students and faculty of Stoneman Douglas were confronted with; but, because of the availability of social media, the world got to witness the horror of those trapped in the school in real time.[2] The Parkland mass shooting has proven to be a catalyst for a new phase of the very public intergenerational discourse about gun control and school safety. A policy suggestion that has emerged on both the local and national levels is the arming of teachers to protect students from an attacker.
There are a host of reasons why this is a terrible notion. First and foremost, shootouts are not like they appear in the movies. As Amanda Ripley wrote for Time Magazine after the Newtown mass shooting, “the research on actual gunfights, the kind that happen not in a politician’s head but in fluorescent-lit stairwells and strip-mall restaurants around America, reveals something surprising. Winning a gunfight without shooting innocent people typically requires realistic, expensive training and a special kind of person.”[3] Most people are not that special kind of person who can overcome their body’s instinctual reaction to being shot at and return fire.[4] Most people freeze, experience tunnel vision, and struggle with retaining basic motor skills under a sudden rush of adrenaline; and these are the trained ones.[5]
While arming teachers seems logical to those who are already in agreement that more guns make us safe, it won’t actually solve anything. No amount of time at the shooting range will prepare teachers to engage in a shootout in a school surrounded by students and confront an active shooter who may in fact be a student they know. This, of course, assumes that they are competent enough with the weapon and will not themselves pose a threat to the school. For example, on February 28 of this year, a teacher barricaded himself in his classroom with a gun at Dalton High School in Georgia.[6] Arming teachers also raises concerns about how implicit bias towards black and brown bodies will impact threat identification. How long will it be until an armed teacher, in a moment of fear toward a black or brown child, misidentifies this child as a threat and kills the student? Will this be covered under some ghoulish interpretation of “stand your ground” laws? What kind of education could black and brown students, or any students for that matter, get in schools where a teacher or administrator could in fact kill them?
Gun ownership is a complex topic with a lot to intellectually unpack. The need for school safety is not complex at all— students cannot learn in educational spaces that are not safe. However, arming teachers is not the answer and will never be the answer. Instead of wasting time and resources training teachers to be security guards, states should spend more money on direly needed school resources— like guidance counselors.
[1] Fleshler, D. and Valys, P. Named for the first time: All 17 who survived Nikolas Cruz’s bullets. Retrieved from: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/broward/parkland/florida-school-shoot…
[2] Ohlheiser, A. and Epstein, K. Just Try to Keep Calm: How One Parkland Student’s Phone Became His Lifeline and His Voice. Retrieved from: https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/lifestyle/parkland-shootin…
[3] Ripley, A. Your Brain in a Shootout: Guns, Fear and Flawed Instincts. Retrieved from: http://swampland.time.com/2013/01/16/your-brain-in-a-shootout-guns-fear…
[4] Ibid.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Burnside, T. and Levenson, E. Georgia teacher arrested after firing gun in school, police say. Retrieved from: https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/28/us/georgia-dalton-high-school-teacher-gu…