Teachers — Locked and Loaded

Maybe it began with Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold when they marched into Columbine High School on April 20, 1999, armed like G4S Security mercenaries and killed twelve students, one teacher, and wounded twenty-one others before, thankfully, ending themselves. Maybe it was the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre that occurred on December 14th, 2012, when, for whatever deranged reason, 20-year-old Adam Lanza walked into the school and killed 26 people, twenty of the them children between six and seven years old. Maybe it was the public outrage that at these and what seems like an endless stream of school shootings before and since. But somewhere in the reactionary cauldrons of American public rhetoric the idea of arming teachers bubbled to the surface. Put guns in the hands of teachers, proponents said, and any would-be assailant will think twice about entering a school, knowing that staff members in that building are also armed and can respond with deadly force.

 They called it a deterrent.

As a veteran teacher who spent 37 years of my life in the public schools of Texas, I was appalled that such a proposition was ever allowed to find its way into the public forum, let alone be taken seriously. Most teachers I know had similar reactions. As if teachers didn’t have enough hats to wear already, now they were being asked to take on the responsibilities of being honorary members of the Texas National Guard, as involuntary deputies on the local police force. Teachers, the altruistic mentors; purveyors of knowledge, curiosity, and creativity; human lenses through which aspiring, bewildered, and naive young people look and, if their eyes are open, envision their own independent futures, were now being told they could attach the role of “Dirty Harry” to their resumés.

With that in mind, please allow me to share with you part of a Face Book exchange that took place last night between a former student of mine, a successful criminal defense attorney in Houston named Jack, and myself. Within the context of our conversation, and a brief interjection by a friend of Jack’s, a person I do not know named Steve and who Jack says is very intelligent and, I assume, a personal friend.

The thread began like this:

Jack

I mean we've already seen law enforcement fail. . .badly 

Me

Just a hypothetical, Jack. Would you as my student back in the day have felt safer in class if you’d known I was strapped?

Jack

Clueless as I was, I doubt if I'd have had an opinion. As a parent, I would prefer my kid's teacher armed.

I've seen the "mass shooter" drills. They appear to be an exercise in creating a "target rich environment" for a shooter and a "safe entry" environment for LEOs (law enforcement officers). Sorry, but I'm not gonna die to help a LEO feel safe . . . as those kids did in Uvalde while the LEOs picked their noses.

For example . . . regardless of the layout of the school or room, everyone is to hid in place. Not the dumbest thing I've heard, but among the dumber things like getting caught in a land war in Asia. When you hear of a shooter, you scatter. Zig zag and run in any direction away. I saw a video of a class who had gone to the BACK of a room in a room where the door opened INWARD until LEOs came and cleared the room. Holy shit. The door opens INWARD. I can't think of an easier way to stun an untrained shooter.

Yeah, my kid's gonna have a much, much different reaction if and when a situation like this happens at school. We'll deal with the consequences of not following orders of leadership later. Since earlier today she told me she had a bad day because I didn't carry her on my shoulders for more than 50% of our time in Nuevo Progreso, Mexico, I don't think she's going to have a problem disobeying protocols of school administrators.

Me

We’ll just have to disagree on this one, my friend. I worked alongside hundreds of teachers in my career, and I can’t think of more than a handful who could have handled a taser competently, let alone a gun. There were several Tackleberrys among them, but most were Barney Fifes. In an active shooter situation your safest bet is lockdown, darkness, and absolute silence. A relatively untrained and nonaggressive defender such as a teacher against a determined assassin is tantamount to Mr. Bean vs. Mike Tyson. Learning how to shoot a gun is pragmatic but ultimately ineffective if you’re unwilling to kill who or what you’re aiming at. It’s like earning your black belt in karate. Of what use is all your training if you’re unwilling or unable to put the brakes on the person whose sole intention is to end YOU? 

Teachers are by and large timid nurturers, not staunch defenders of the defenseless. I can’t think of a better way to increase the casualty count in an active shooter situation than to have armed teachers getting into a firefight with an assailant who is probably suicidal anyway. True, LOEs are the middlemen in such a scenario, but it is their chosen profession, and as such they have trained to do more than just fire a gun without panicking and spraying bullets into the ceiling. Uvalde’s LOE response was pathetic and cowardly, but I’ll argue that theirs was not a standard law enforcement tactical counter attack. I daresay that if the teachers in that school had been armed it would have resulted in teachers and cops shooting each other in a “crossfire hurricane” with who knows how much collateral damage in between.

Jack

All of these are fair points. . . I'm not sure if I would have been terribly jazzed about Moe, Joe, and Curly being armed. 

That said, if those asshats were open to some cowboy-shooting training, I’d be up to paying for it. I think of that as contributing to the Commons rather than adding to the Tragedy.

I think your objections would be abrogated if people would just stay in their lanes. Recognizing our biases is a worthwhile goal and probably the gateway to humility. Fear and it's stablemate, Ego, tend to object vigorously.

Raising children requires adults, preferably adults who give a shit. I've got the giving-a-shit down, I fault her sometimes about being an adult all the time. When I falter, I point out my mistakes to my little one and ask for her forgiveness. So far she's she's never held back!

Contra, it's been my experience that even in the rarefied air of an upper middle class environment, there are still parents whose initial reaction to everything negative about their kid is some version of "not my kid!" Yeah well, fuck you, NPC.

Steve (to Me)

Genuinely curious how you think a leader in a room full of children being armed in a defensive position during a lockdown will increase casualties.

Me (to Steve)

With a few exceptions most teachers have neither the temperament nor the inclination to use firearms, let alone deadly force. This creates a situation where you have 1) the very real likelihood of panic, 2) the even more real danger of accidentally shooting at friendlies (i.e. LOEs) who, for example, may be attempting to gain entry for the purposes of rescue and security but are mistaken by an inexperienced civilian to be the shooter, 3) crossfire, which even trained police and military personnel must be specifically aware of and practiced at avoiding, and 4) a teacher whose most likely position is going to be in front of or among the students themselves, hence shooting at the assailant, no matter how well intentioned and accurate, is going to draw return fire and thus up the potential for even more casualties.

Police go through months of preparation in their academies; soldiers go through ten weeks of basic training. Putting a gun in the hands of civilians, most of whom have not had such intense instruction, and plunking them down on the local gun range for a few lessons on how not to shoot their own asses off does not remotely prepare them for the kind of scenario we’re talking about. Yes, you can put forward the argument that there are surely going to be teachers in any school who are hunters and have plenty of gun experience. I would hasten to remind you, however, that animals and fowl do not shoot back; not all hunters are good marksmen. We’re talking apples and oranges here.

It was bad enough that supposedly trained police and SWAT officers didn’t have the skills, balls, and experience to handle an active shooter situation in Uvalde, Texas. Imagine how even more catastrophic it would have been if some or all of the teachers had been armed. It would have been a wild west shootout with many more innocents wounded and dead probably including, by the way, the armed teacher(s). And I haven’t even begun to address the issue of the kids themselves. Under the calmest and most normal of conditions, kids can be tough to control. Have you even an inkling of an idea of the emotional tornado “shots fired” would set off among the students?

I’m sorry, Steve, but this discussion is not an academic exercise. This is real life. As a teacher of 37 years in the public schools of Texas (God bless the stupidity of open carry without a permit!), I can tell you with certainty that arming teachers is a prime example of the cure being worse than the disease.

Jack

So, I've had some time to metabolize your hypothesis of your arming bears (remember THAT on the east side of your room, next to the stand-alone closet?).

As a kid. Yes. I would have felt safe. That's because I always felt safe around you. Having a gun or not would have made zero difference. Feeling safe is predicated upon trust, and you had that in spades.

As an adult. Also yes, only more so. Were you to feel the need to have a sidearm, I know you to take your charges and duties seriously. With this in mind, you would have sought the training necessary to be competent.

Me

I’m pleased and honored that you feel that way about me, Jack. You’re absolutely correct that I would have done whatever I had to to protect the kids in my charge. When schools began having lockdown drills (how sad!) I used to have discussions with the students when it was over because, kids being kids, there were always a few who didn’t take the exercise seriously, or seriously enough. Never wanting to miss a teaching opportunity, I tried to use the occasion to help them understand 1) the gravity of the situation should it ever come to pass, and 2) that I would do whatever I had to to protect them. This was not heroism or selflessness on my part, it was simply me describing my honest (though hypothetical) response, as well as me honoring my commitment and responsibility to ensure their safety as well as my own.

All of that said, and having had some martial arts training and a bit of exposure to disarmament tactics, I would still refuse to carry a weapon in school for the reasons I sited earlier. Based upon discussions I’ve had with colleagues over the years, my sense is that most teachers feel the same way regardless of their training and/or confidence level. Maybe that’s a naive and Pollyanna-esque mindset, but Mortal Combat and Call of Duty adrenaline simply does not run in our blood. My exception to the meet-violence-with-violence philosophy, as I have no doubt yours is too, is in the event that I or my immediate family was under imminent threat of death. In that instance, all bets are off. To that end I admit that I am the owner of an eight-shot 12 gauge riot gun for the purpose of self-protection. 

But I digress . . .