I’m always kidding with colleagues about things I have to do at school that my methods classes never prepared me for.  Some things are funny, like dealing with my kids doing things that nobody could ever predict, because, well – they’re kids.  Some things don’t need a college degree, like wiping tables and sweeping floors during lunch duty.  Some include parental experience like tying shoes, putting on band-aids, giving hugs and wiping tears.  As a teacher, I get that there are other duties as assigned because I’m dealing with kids.  It comes with the territory.  However there are things creeping into my teaching that I was never prepared for and should never be prepared  for.

It starts simply of course.  Years ago it was first aid training, then you had to sign off on knowing how to deal with bodily fluids.  Well, okay, I’ve seen just about every bodily fluid possible in my classroom, so that makes sense.  It was partially due to not having a health professional in every building every day.  Thankfully the buildings in my current district do. Then a few years ago after a rash of teen suicides we had to take suicide training.  The latest is trauma training, dealing with kids who have experienced trauma in their lives. So now we are dealing with things that usually counselors and social workers deal with.  However, districts can’t afford enough of them anymore, so it gets piled on the teachers who are supposed to be  substitute mental health “experts”.

Then there are the drills.  Look, I grew up in the 70’s and I can remember what seemed like ten or more bomb scares at my middle school in Kentucky.  I remember them specifically because we all had to stand outside in whatever weather and wait until the police went through the building.  All while looking longingly at my house across the street from school.  And as a teacher, I understand the necessity of fire and tornado drills to keep children as safe as possible.

But now there are code red drills.  Okay fine, we clarify the procedures, we have an expert come out and talk to us, we have people come out and look at our rooms and help choose the safest place to be.  They provide us with little magnet cards to place in our doors that we can pull out to automatically lock the door, knowing full well that if someone really wanted to get in the room, it would be a matter of breaking the glass and reaching in to open the door.  But I can live with this so far and hope the odds are ever in my favor.  However, I now hear the suggestion that we arm teachers and I say ENOUGH!!!

I am not anti-gun.  My dad was career military and my son served for twelve years.  My father-in-law has been an avid hunter his entire life and my husband and his family have all hunted and fished.  This is not just for sport as what they shoot, they eat or give away.  I can deal with this.  The military and police need guns.  I get it.  I haven’t gotten used to but accept the fact that when I go to D.C. that there are snipers on top of the Capital and military with automatic rifles surrounding the building.  I accept the fact that when I go to an airport in New York that there are armed national guardsmen at the doors.  We unfortunately live in a society that requires that kind of protection and I am grateful.  But when we start talking guns at school, I say ENOUGH!

I can just see it now.  As part of your teacher preparation in college, you’ll be expected to go to gun safety training and target practice.  You’ll use it as part of your team building exercises at the beginning of the school year with the winning team receiving a little plastic trophy.  You’ll spend time in staff meetings debating on where these teachers should be in the building and where they should keep their weapon so that it’s close but not somewhere a student could get at it.  And who is going to pay for these weapons?  Nobody (except kind parents and me) buy Kleenex for our rooms NOW, what makes anyone think someone is going to dish out the money to provide weapons?  It will come out of the little yearly budget most teachers get to purchase supplies for their classrooms.  Let’s be honest, most schools don’t have enough teachers, counselors, social workers and basic supplies, so how much less will we have if someone mandates that teachers carry weapons?

I did not get into teaching to become a mental health specialist or an armed guard.  Look, I’ll do my dead level best to protect the children I have in my room, no bad pun intended, with whatever I can get my hands on but I will not carry a gun in my classroom.  My children deserve to have a peaceful environment to learn and be with their friends and not have to be aware of possible danger all the time.  And maybe that sounds naive, but I think that’s the way most teachers feel.  We are the place some children want to go to get AWAY from the violence they may experience.  I will not bring it into my room to shatter that peace.  I’ll take my chances.

I heard today that this last shooting may be the breaking point for people in our country and we’re hearing from young people who are tired of being “soft targets”.  It’s the culture that needs to change, not what we carry into the school building.  It’s building relationships, getting away from screens, looking people in the eye, being aware and interested in what people are thinking and feeling, and teaching people to take responsibility for their actions and deal with the consequences.  I’ve had enough.  How about you?