Guns in schools

School safety may be easy to campaign on, but….

 

Gov. Greg Abbott used the school safety issue and the fear of gun violence to receive some positive publicity for his reelection campaign during a visit to Nacogdoches the other day. Has Abbott actually done anything to protect schools from gun violence? Not much. But in the political game that doesn’t always matter. Or so Abbott hopes.

Perception often trumps reality in politics, and the governor projected a positive perception during a locally televised public appearance in which he was asked what he was doing to keep kids safe at school.

“It’s imperative that the State of Texas do everything that we can to make sure that our schools are as safe as possible,” Abbott said.

He apparently reminded his audience that in the wake of the Parkland, Fla., school tragedy, he ordered the Texas School Safety Center, based at Texas State University in San Marcos, to make sure that schools across Texas are compying with school security plans.

What he didn’t tell the parents and other voters in Nacogdoches though was that last year he signed a budget that cut the School Safety Center’s budget by 30 percent, restricting the center’s ability to do its job of providing school districts with security training, resources and technical assistance.

And he didn’t remind the folks in Nacogdoches that he and his legislative allies continue to under-fund their public schools, making it difficult for some school officials to do everything they would like to do to keep their students and employees safe.

Abbott instead has proposed that more schools arm their teachers. That would sell more guns, and some people would like that, but it wouldn’t be doing, as the governor would say, “everything that we can to make sure that our schools are as safe as possible.”

And arming teachers is not a meaningful answer for the thousands of students, parents and educators who this week will continue their demonstrations against gun violence.

Gov. Abbott talks school safety at legislative summit in Nacogdoches

 

 

Trump’s Commission on School Safety shuts out students, educators

 

Tens of thousands of students and educators from Texas – joined by additional thousands across the country – marched and rallied last weekend for the government to take reasonable steps to protect them from gun violence while they are at school. So, how does the Trump administration respond? With a deaf ear.

Trump’s Federal Commission on School Safety, chaired by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, held its first meeting behind closed doors at the White House today and did not invite students, parents or educators. Maybe President Trump, who already has said he wants to arm teachers to protect students against gun violence, just doesn’t want to hear more sensible ideas offered by students and educators.

That’s what National Education Association President Lily Eskelsen Garcia suspects.

“The commission’s clear purpose is to push an agenda that is focused on a dangerous and misguided plan to put more guns in schools by arming teachers and other school personnel,” she said. “All of this is a distraction from the real problem: Very dangerous people have very easy access to very dangerous weapons. Our students need fewer guns in schools – not more of them – and bringing guns into our schools does absolutely nothing to protect our students and educators from gun violence.”

 

Sponsor of gun law for teachers defeated in Republican primary

 

One of the seven incumbent legislators unseated in Tuesday’s party primaries was Republican state Rep. Jason Villalba of Dallas, the sponsor of the law that allows a limited number of Texas teachers to be trained as “school marshals” and take guns to school. Fewer than 200 districts, primarily rural districts without police departments, are using the program, enacted in 2013 after the Sandy Hook school shooting in Connecticut.

Guns apparently didn’t figure in Villalba’s defeat, though, because he was unseated by a hard-right extremist who loves the Second Amendment. But school privatization may have been a factor. Villalba usually tried to straddle the fence on privatization, and that was bad enough. But Lisa Luby Ryan, the new Republican nominee for the District 114 seat in north Dallas, is a potential nightmare for public schools and educators.

She was supported by ultra-conservative groups, including the Texas Home School Coalition Association and Empower Texans, the campaign dirty trickster group founded by a wealthy voucher advocate and private school founder in West Texas.

Fortunately, this district is a swing district that will be in play politically in November, so voters will have a choice. The Democratic nominee, John Turner, will be a strong advocate for public schools, not privatization. The son of former congressman and state senator Jim Turner, John is an attorney who has represented school districts seeking more state funding for public schools and has been endorsed by TSTA-PAC.

 

 

“We’re not cops,” say teachers with firearms training

 

Three weeks after the tragic school shooting in Parkland, Fla., the debate over arming teachers, precipitated in large part by President Trump, continues. Trump suggested that armed teachers would be a strong line of defense against armed intruders because they love and want to protect their students.

“A teacher would have shot the hell out of (the Parkland shooter) before he knew what happened,” Trump claimed.

The president was correct about teachers loving and feeling protective of their students, but then he veered way off course with the tough talk. As several teachers with firearms training point out in the Education Week article linked below, it is not that simple. In fact, Trump’s remarks indicate no understanding of how dangerous and confusing it would be for the vast majority of teachers to be thrust unexpectedly – and any attack would be unexpected – into the middle of a school shooting.

Anthony McCurdy, a high school special education teacher in Hawaii and an Army veteran with extensive firearms training, is among those quoted in the article.

“We’re teachers. We’re not cops,” he said. “And even regular cops don’t have this training – there are SWAT teams for a reason. You want teachers to be SWAT-trained cops? That’s crazy.”

Brian Teucke, an 8th grade civics and economics teacher in Hampton Roads, Va., also has a military background – and a concealed-carry permit. He said he would be willing to take a gun to school and noted his students have said they would appreciate the potential security. But, he added, most teachers don’t have his training and it isn’t realistic to expect them to double as emergency security officers.

“I think teachers are way overstressed,” Teucke said. “I think it’s asking a lot to have them take on an extra responsibility.” An extra dangerous responsibility – for them and their students – at that.

The article also raises another question.

What if an armed teacher, unexpectedly thrust into a dangerous, hyper-stressful situation, accidentally shoots a student or another teacher during an active-shooter attack?

Listen to people who know what they’re talking about, Mr. President.

Even teachers who have firearms training are wary of Trump’s proposal