School principal calls for better gun laws (Opinion)

Working in public education is a political act. As educators, we are government employees who have the privilege of contributing to the academic, personal, and social development of students. Most of us joined this profession because of our deep commitment to students and learning.

But over the past 25 years, the discourse on education has shifted from teaching, critical thinking, collaborative work, equity and social justice to learning survival skills, including drills and other strategies for responding to shootings.

Public Educators Act replacing parents In our hearts and, indeed, in our legal responsibility. As a high school principal, I believe there is no career more important or more rewarding than that of an educator. We protect our students and feel deeply the responsibility we have to the parents and guardians who entrust us with their precious family members; and yet, we cannot stop a bullet.

Teachers and schools provide social-emotional learning, career technical education, extracurricular activities, core curriculum and instruction, as well as arts and physical education. We provide guidance on postsecondary options, global sensitivities, and more to students. Much of what we teach is guided by local and state authorities, as are rules and requirements regarding what is commonly referred to as “school safety.”

The 2022 State Education Commission According to reports, as of 2019, 44 states and the District of Columbia have laws requiring schools to create a school safety plan. In California, where I am from, the plan includes a requirement that schools “develop strategies and policies to prevent and respond to potential incidents… (including)… active aggressors/intruders.”

It is now common to describe the work of teachers as being “on the front lines.” Militaristic expressions like these indicate the transformation of our professional identities from joyful work to that of “first responders” and “incident commanders.”

Teachers are facing the reality that teaching and learning are no longer our priorities. Our professional development now includes how to barricade a door, quickly close the blinds, silence terrified students, and ensure the classroom’s red bucket is available to contain human excrement.

Even the best trained responders to live-action shootings are human beings, as evidenced by the Secret Service’s failure to prevent an assassination attempt at former President Donald Trump’s recent rally in Pennsylvania. Human beings simply have not been able to prevent horrific mass shootings in the face of automatic weapons. It’s incredible that teachers can be expected to do any better.

The fact is that the accessibility of firearms puts us on the front lines of mass shooters. This potential for violence is at the forefront of our concerns when we schedule mandatory “active shooter,” “code red,” and “shelter-in-place” drills and training.

There’s a reason to be prepared. According to EverytownThere have been at least 117 incidents of shootings in schools nationwide since the beginning of the year, resulting in 32 deaths and 65 injuries. By the time you read this, that number may have increased.

For a school principal responsible for children, teachers, and staff, the pressure to reassure everyone that school is safe is almost paralyzing. Parents, students, and staff are demanding police training, special locks on classroom doors and windows, window coverings, student profiling, and other “protections” against shootings. The focus that should be on teaching and learning has been replaced by an emphasis on survival skills in the spectrum of gun violence.

As a nation, we must demand public safety policies to reduce gun violence, including bans on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, and the creation and enforcement of waiting periods, background checks, responsible gun ownership laws, and other common-sense laws.

The murder of a single child in a school should be enough to motivate lawmakers to act. Sadly, the shocking Columbine shootings of 1999 were just the beginning. In 2012, we saw the massacre of 20 6- and 7-year-olds at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. In 2022, 19 schoolchildren were killed in Uvalde, Texas.

The slaughter of these children, whose parents had dropped them off in our homes hoping they would be safe, has not yet been enough to pass common-sense gun reform laws. Since lawmakers have not done enough to change gun laws, we must act.

It is time for administrators to partner with teachers to get the attention of state and local legislators and voters. Together, we must take action to change the narrative about education. As education leaders, we cannot continue to pretend that we can train and practice to protect students from mass shooters.

Education administrators and leaders must:

• Openly advocate for gun reform;
• Share their positions on gun reform with their school board to build coalition and show that school boards have a place in defending the safety of their stakeholders;
• Urge the district to post a statement on gun reform on its website and to post the same statement on each school’s website;
• Collaborate with their union, if they have one, on joint advocacy for gun control reform;
• Include a discussion of gun reform in staff safety drill training to raise awareness of alternatives to accommodate current gun laws;
• Join organizations like Everytown.org to support gun control reform initiatives; and
• Use your position as a public school educator to write, call, and email local, state, and federal government officials to demand gun control reform.

School should not be so dangerous for students or teachers that we prioritize shooter drills over education. Let’s work together to demand that our lawmakers change this so that we can once again learn and teach without fear of becoming victims of gun violence. We must act now to save our children’s lives, our own lives, and the lives of our teachers.