I know from experience: Arming teachers is ludicrous

By Abbey Clements

On Dec. 14, 2012, I walked into Sandy Hook Elementary School to start my day teaching my second-graders. I stopped at the office, talked briefly with Principal Hochsprung and then the two of us headed down the hall.

My principal was headed to a meeting in the conference room on the other side of the building. I’d never again see her alive.

There was a lot going on that time of year, being that it was almost winter break and the holidays. I had heard that Mrs. Hochsprung was going to be popping into classrooms, so before the official start of math, I wanted to squeeze in a time to make snowflakes for our PTA holiday luncheon. I got everyone quiet. And that’s when we heard a loud crash, what I initially thought was folding chairs falling.

We just had a holiday program, so that would make sense. What wouldn’t make sense was what had really happened: Someone who shouldn’t have had access to a semi-automatic rifle killed his mother, then came to my beautiful school in my beautiful town and shot through the front door. My classroom was on the right when you enter the school. He turned left, and you know the horrific details — he murdered six of my colleagues and friends, and 20 beautiful children. Children witnessed this carnage firsthand. Children and educators ran for their lives or went into lockdown and were lucky. This was true for myself and my students.

I would like to make something perfectly clear: Had school employees been carrying guns at Sandy Hook School, it would NOT have made us or our students any safer. In fact, it may very well have made things even worse.

I would like to make something perfectly clear: Had school employees been carrying guns at Sandy Hook School, it would NOT have made us or our students any safer.

As the gunman burst in with an AR-15, we were taking care of terrified children, huddled into coats and backpacks, behind closed doors, trying to distract them, trying to read to them, to sing songs to them, all while listening to 154 gunshots unleashed in five minutes in the classrooms and hallway of our elementary school.

You must understand how fast shootings happen and how chaotic and confusing it is. There is no way to determine who and where the gunfire is coming from. I could not fathom that it was one person, one firearm. The number of shots, the frequency — I thought it was several people.

Say I had a gun, would I have left my terrified students? Never. Would I have been able to find, approach and fire at him and not someone else? Without perhaps a child getting in the way? It’s completely unrealistic to think that an educator with a gun would have been able to navigate all of this in such a short period of time and take down the gunman without interfering with law enforcement’s response, or harming or killing other educators, or God forbid, children. Trained, armed resource officers aren’t even proven to be effective during school shootings, and their only job is to protect.

This is not the movies, it’s school.

Teachers are hired to teach. And we do way more than that. We challenge students when needed and tutor those who need extra help. We help them navigate social situations and make sure they have a lunch, a Band-Aid, their homework. We are moving around nonstop, working through one lesson and planning the next at the same time.

Though we are experts in multitasking, asking us to be responsible for a lethal weapon in a classroom is ludicrous. Do we wear it on our hip? Lock it in a cabinet? Have it ready in a drawer? Guns carried by individuals can be left unattended, accidentally discharged or wrestled from the carrier, and all of these pose significant risks to children and adults alike. They’ve also all become a reality in schools that allow educators to carry.

Though we are experts in multitasking, asking us to be responsible for a lethal weapon in a classroom is ludicrous.

Have you ever seen how quick and agile students can be? They can get in small spaces. They’re there when you turn around or show up behind you. Are we going to put students in harm’s way every day because of the mistaken notion that an educator could take down an active shooter while shielding children from gunfire?

Not to mention that we are educators who teach peace and nonviolence. We teach conflict resolution by talking out problems. We hail historical figures like Martin Luther King Jr., and Mahatma Gandhi. What would the possession of guns by educators in schools teach children?

Guns in schools sends the message to students that adults can’t solve the problem of gun violence in America. Guns in schools sends the message to students that they’re not safe in school. The onus of America’s problem with gun violence should not land on children’s shoulders through lock-down drills and active shooter drills, through militarizing schools and having folks with guns roaming the halls. Sure, secure school buildings. But do not give kids clear backpacks, bulletproof backpacks, reading igloos that morph into bulletproof caves. These are the things of war zones and shouldn’t be in American public schools.

It’s the guns. And this is on us to fix.

Schools are not like this in other civilized nations.

This is on us to fix.

Abbey Clements, center, is a fourth-grade teacher in the Newtown Public Schools and a member of the Newtown Federation of Teachers. This post is based on testimony she gave before the Department of Education School Safety Commission.