Arm Teachers To Stop School Violence Essay

, Research Paper

Arm Teachers to Stop School Shootings?

How often do we open the newspaper or turn on the television and see there has been another school shooting? It seems as though it is happening more and more everyday. Violence in schools seems to be on the rise. And now we are faced with the possibility of weapons willingly going into our schools to “protect our children.” It is asked should we arm teachers to stop school shootings?

I do not believe Arming teachers is a good idea. Teachers should not bring any kind of weapons into the classroom. I am a mother and I hate to think that the person I send my son to everyday could possibly have a gun or another dangerous weapon in her desk or somewhere else in the classroom. I do however believe if schools want armed faculty then they need to hire people that have a strong background with weapons such as armed security officers, former police or military personnel. Those who have experience and are trained to deal with dangerous situations are more likely to handle the problems quicker and more effectively than a person with no history or knowledge of a dangerous confrontation such as a shooting. Also I believe that if students know there are armed trained professionals at their schools it would really make them stop and think twice before deciding to follow through on any violent act they might be planning. Now I do not believe having armed guards will stop school shootings completely but I do think it will cause a decrease in the violence. Stopping school violence has to be an ongoing effort, an effort on everyone’s part.

Teachers are there to focus on and teach our children. They are not trained to deal with extremely violent crimes. And they shouldn’t have to be, We need to stand up and say we will not put up with this and we don’t have to. We need to push to make our schools safe for our children but arming teachers is not the way to do it. We need to push to have the trained professionals there that will be able to protect the students and the faculty. But arming teachers should not be an option.