After Another Shooting, I Think About…
I can picture my classroom–windows all along one wall–3 floors up. One entry door –my desk the first thing you see when you enter the room. No lockers in the room. Students in chair desks, metal-legged chairs with a wooden panel for writing.
No place to hide.
If I were surprised at my desk, I’d be shot first. I would not be able to help my students. My classroom would be the geography of chaos for me and my students. With the type of gun that our government refuses to restrict, there would be carnage.
MY HISTORY: BUT THEN ONE MORNING…
I taught high school English right out of college. I loved it! With my long hair, I was often mistaken for a student. And when the Superintendent of the school that eventually hired me, said point blank that some of the students had knives, asked if I could handle it if a student came at me–what to say? This was my third school interview. This was a position I really wanted. I assured him I could handle it. I’d been warned. I got the job.
MORE WARNINGS
I had been teaching only three months, when it happened. First period HOMEROOM, early morning. One of my students walks over to me, warns me NOT to go to second hour assembly. But I had to go, I had to take my class. But I have never forgotten that student, his name and what he looked like. He wanted to protect me.
At the end of the assembly a riot broke out. Students ran everywhere, through the halls, out the doors. Teachers tried to control rebellious students who were throwing chairs through the windows. I was told by a male teacher to go into a classroom and stay with the students in that room. I did. Probably within an hour, with extra police called in, things were calmed. All students were sent home. Teachers met to discuss the situation. This was because of the murders by Chicago police of Fred Hampton and Mark Clark.
My time line is vague, but within weeks, another riot broke out. This time I was in the library helping my students. This time the student came at me and my group with a lead pipe in his hand. In retrospect the threat felt small, almost sad. The vice principal was right behind him and I knew the student, called out his name. That always ends things. And later, I had to give a deposition against him.
But during those incidents, some young people were hurt–the rioters and those running from them. Glass windows and cabinets were broken. And we had to change our school schedule, have a policeman on duty all day every day. For a while. But being a teenager is the time of life when you are more than ever aware of the wrongs done to you, or the wrongs that could be done to you.
Fortunately, none of these students had a gun.
IT SHOULD ALWAYS BE ABOUT OUR YOUNG PEOPLE–INSTEAD IS IT ABOUT MONEY?
When we had riots at my high school, we also had the Second Amendment. But not one student had a gun. Now, after Columbine, it’s copycat or worse. Those two young men at Columbine had guns. Now with every student who is angry, depressed, ignored, or dealing with issues that involve mental instability–there is a gun. WHY? Is it about the Gun Lobby, the gun makers? Is it truly about guns being great for sports? Deer hunting. Duck hunting. Target practice. If so, why do we have guns that annihilate so many people in seconds and are easily obtained? If you can read, you know all the answers. Every time children are slaughtered in schools these reasons rise up again. Statistics Don’t Matter (even if only one student is wounded THIS IS WRONG.
FACTORS
TIME is part of modern slaughter. In the disturbances that occurred in my high school and many other high schools in past years, no one died. Though chaos might have lasted for 45 minutes, within that time, most of the instigators broke something, maybe punched someone and then ran from the building. The lead pipe in the library? It was a weapon, but such a weapon requires being cornered and up close. Students instinctively run or they were locked up in classrooms while the rioters ran free. Today’s weapons can often penetrate walls and doors. Older school rooms have only one entrance–no exit. Schools were built for learning–not escape.
DURATION: “An analysis of 41 school shootings from 2008-2017 by the Secret Service’s National Threat Assessment Center found two-thirds of attacks lasted less than two minutes and nearly half were over in less than 60 seconds.” Death and mayhem in less time than it takes to tweet. Ah, our civilization.
WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT THE SAFETY OF YOUR SCHOOL CHILD, GRANDCHILD?
Ken Trump, an Ohio School safety consultant, opposes choice-based training in schools. “The devil is in the details.”
After Columbine, schools went into lockdowns. But at Stoneman Douglas, the shooter set off the fire alarms, drawing students out of the classrooms.
Should students get involved? A student at a high school in Orange County CA was wrestled to the ground and unarmed after brandishing an unloaded gun in shop class.
In Colorado, four teens charged a classmate with a gun. The first student was hit and killed, the gunman was disarmed, but students died.
Responding to seeing students, who are not trained, jump into situations Ken Trump said: “We have to make sure we are not doing more harm than good. Lockdowns are the gold standard for a reason.There is little empirical evidence that fighting or running saves more lives–and few kids have the mental maturity to make accurate assessment of their best options.” He also believes that some of these drills or simulations that include shooting blanks or using fake blood can be unnecessarily anxiety-provoking for students and staff.
WHAT DO YOU THINK? LOCKDOWNS VERSUS STUDENTS ON THE ATTACK
I agree with Ken Trump, whose bottom line is this: “We are asking kids in these programs to make adult decisions when their brains have not reached that capacity. And moving away from lockdowns may leave students with disabilities or special needs behind.”
I do think that our teachers today are heroes. Yes, there are many schools that have not had to deal with these awful threats. But even one is one too many. I recently walked the outdoor areas at a school here in California. I was there with the League of Women Voters to register students to vote.
Most California schools are one level, spread out with swaths of sunny plazas appearing beside this building and that building. Students gather for lunch, for meetings. When I was there, each student-run club had a station with posters explaining what they do and urging other students to join. There was no gun club. This is what being a student needs to always encompass: FREEDOM in SAFETY.
Yes, I had to sign in at that school to get access to this inner sanctum. Yes, there is always a guard in the parking lot, not unlike the policeman that eventually walked the halls of my high school. But then there were no guns. No guns. And I never did encounter in my years of teaching–a student with a knife. Never.
PHOTO CREDIT: Teacher Magazine.com AU
Information for this article appeared in the LA TIMES, thanks to Anita Chabria and Nina Agrawal
