Educators are scarce on everything, whether it be resources, compensation or time. So often, we are stretched thin and in many different directions, using the little time we have to learn best practices or catch up on the latest research that will help us become better teachers. Instead, we are forced to spend our time learning about active shooter scenarios.
I’ve lost count of the number of hours I’ve spent in training for active shooter situations. In many districts, time is set aside each month for this purpose. Due to the litany of school shootings that have become a regular occurrence across the country, educators must practice lockdown drills with our students, quieting them as we herd them into a corner. We’ve learned the horrifying statistics and watched the simulations. We’ve practiced building barricades and breaking open windows. I’ve simulated throwing classroom materials at a fictitious shooter. I’ve even had a colleague shoot foam bullets at me from a fake gun.
Any time I am sitting in an active shooter training, I look around at my colleagues and wonder how many of them feel the way I do — resigned to this fate of active shooter training because they are unsure of how to take action without the risk that comes with it. As we watch the latest school shooting news story, many teachers, including myself, are in a forced state of paralysis. How do we keep ourselves and our students safe in a climate where gun reform is a heated debate? It makes me sick to my stomach thinking about it, and I hope it does the same for you.
Many educators have been indoctrinated into believing that we’re not allowed to be political. As teachers, we feel the need to remain neutral and unbiased for the sake of our students while being silenced by the schools we work for. As a teacher and a mother, I wonder at what point I will quit teaching out of fear for my life or the lives of my students.
I joined Moms Demand Action (MDA) for Gun Sense in America five years ago after my first active shooter training. My husband and I had just moved back home to the United States with our newborn after living abroad in Singapore, a country with little to no gun violence because of strict gun laws. I knew that if I was going to live in the U.S. and work as a teacher, I had to be involved in ending gun violence.
I have been encouraged to hide the fact that I am an MDA member from the families in my community for fear that I will appear too political. I find myself hesitant to post updates on my social media page, and I always get nervous running into students and their parents when I’m out at an event in my red MDA shirt. When I try to recruit fellow teachers, they also express apprehension about getting involved for fear of repercussions.
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