Guns in Schools

Last week I heard on the radio that two states are considering allowing teachers to carry, hold, possess, use guns in schools. Something about improving the safety of the kids. I was a teacher and still consider myself a teacher. I come from a family of teachers, and I wonder how this even came up. Oxymoronic for multiple reasons...

1. I remember some days when I wanted to shake a child (middle school...lovingly, in as much of a hug as possible ;) ). I also remember how crazy the day is for teachers who don't sit down all day, and continuously misplace their water bottles. Unless the teacher wears a holster for the gun, you run the risk of guns being misplaced or misprioritized. If the teacher has to worry about keeping up with his or her piece, then something else might not be prioritized. Like teaching.
2. Secondly, if the gun is supposed to protect the kids, that is telling kids that guns are safety measures and conflicts with the anti-violence and peer mediation training that most schools have in place. If the teacher needs a gun, then that undermines the confidence the kids have in the adults' ability to protect them. It could start a trickle down effect of kids needing to go get guns so they feel safe. And kids can get guns. Teachers will have licenses. Kids won't.
   
3. One of the things that teachers are supposed to do is to protect children to the best of their ability. I'm not saying they should be Secret Service and risk their lives for them, but...asking a teacher to shoot a student to protect others is going to be hard. Teachers are already expected to break up fights that put them at physical risk. Now you want them to carry a gun and shoot or be shot at when there is gun conflict. What kind of liability is that when you shoot the wrong kid? (We already sometimes blame the wrong kid for throwing paper in the class, and apology and a homework pass assuage that offense.) What protection is there?
4. I stood at the altar Sunday morning and noticed a little boy who wanted prayer but was afraid to come to the altar. During the offering, I mentioned it to grandma, and she said he just didn't want to come forward. So, I went to him and asked him in his seat if he needed to pray about something. He sighed in relief, "Yeah." I took him out in the hallway away from noise and asked him what he wanted to pray about. He said,"About going to a safe school." We've had some issues in Boston schools, but it never occurred to me that kids would be afraid to go back to school because of safety at school. He's seven. How's he going to feel when he walks in the first day and his 2nd Grade teacher is packing?

I know guns don't shoot people, people shoot people. True...with guns. It's not that I don't think people could have guns, but my gut tells me schools need pencils, paper, crayons, science labs, calculators, computers, and textbooks first.