{"id":68935,"date":"2018-03-12T23:31:16","date_gmt":"2018-03-13T04:31:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=68935"},"modified":"2018-03-12T23:32:50","modified_gmt":"2018-03-13T04:32:50","slug":"educators-push-back-against-guns-in-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/educators-push-back-against-guns-in-schools\/","title":{"rendered":"Educators push back against guns in schools"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Kaitlin Englund<\/strong>
\nMedill Reports<\/em><\/p>\n

As the one-month anniversary of the Parkland school shooting nears, and lawmakers debate provisions for gun safety and reform, Chicago-area educators say that arming teachers is not a viable solution and challenge the nation\u2019s leaders to find alternative solutions. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s so beyond ridiculous,\u201d said Matt Walsh, a history and psychology teacher at Evanston Township High School. \u201cThe solution to guns is not guns.\u201d<\/p>\n

Walsh is not alone in his sentiment as other teachers have called the idea \u201cwild,\u201d and worse, and declare they are completely against arming teachers in schools.
\n<\/p>\n

Nancy Polancich, a retired teacher of 33 years, said she\u2019s had this conversation with friends and colleagues who agreed that the idea is unfathomable. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf we were to walk into school one fall and they would announce that we were to be trained and to be armed, then that would have been our final moment in education,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

While educators largely agree that increasing the presence of guns in schools will not solve safety issues, they say there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Instead, teachers suggest that creating a safer environment requires a combination of initiatives.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no need for teachers to be armed, that\u2019s the lazy approach,\u201d said Anthony Clark, a special-education teacher at Oak Park and River Forest High School. \u201cThere\u2019s interconnected issues, there\u2019s root causes that have led to gun violence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like many across the nation, Randall Harper, a teacher at Maine West High School, said he thinks the movement needs to start with reforming gun laws and looking at the issue from a mental-health perspective. <\/p>\n

\u201cTo me, an assault-style rifle should be so strictly regulated that only a small percentage of people could get their hands on it,\u201d said Harper. He added that lawmakers should institute more solutions like red-flag laws, which can also be known as extreme-risk-protection-order laws, to prevent people from using guns to harm themselves or others. <\/p>\n

Adam Roubitchek, another teacher at Maine West High School, echoed Harper\u2019s sentiment that there needs to be a larger focus on mental-health issues and legislation. <\/p>\n

\u201cWell absolutely we need more mental-health services,\u201d said Roubitchek. \u201cBut those aren\u2019t mutually exclusive. We need a way to protect our students on all fronts.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd so, yes, we should absolutely have more mental-health services and just health services in general provided to people that need them. But then they should not be able to walk into a store and buy a gun that can kill massive amounts of people.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Clark, the Oak Park and River Forest High School teacher, said that while legislation is important in changing the narrative of gun violence in schools, it must be more than that.<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing stops a bullet like opportunity,\u201d said Clark. \u201cWe have to invest in many of our urban environments, invest in our school systems, invest in infrastructure, invest in creating job opportunities\u2026 If we invest and give people options, I guarantee gun violence will decrease.\u201d <\/p>\n

Ultimately, while these offered solutions are part of a push to create safer schools, Roubitchek said it\u2019s not just a school issue.
\n\u201cWe\u2019ve seen it in schools, we\u2019ve seen it in churches, we saw it in Vegas at a concert,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is a guns issue.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Kaitlin Englund Medill Reports As the one-month anniversary of the Parkland school shooting nears, and lawmakers debate provisions for gun safety and reform, Chicago-area educators say that arming teachers is not a viable solution and challenge the nation\u2019s leaders to find alternative solutions. \u201cI think it\u2019s so beyond ridiculous,\u201d said Matt Walsh, a history […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":480,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,4091,3987],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-68935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-public-affairs","category-schoolshootings","category-winter-2018"],"yoast_head":"\nEducators push back against guns in schools - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/educators-push-back-against-guns-in-schools\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Educators push back against guns in schools - 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