Op/Ed: Handguns in the classroom? Teachers climbing out of windows? That's where we're at.
I read with interest the column in the daily briefing, written by Public Engagement Editor Oseye Boyd on April 25 of the Indianapolis Star titled, “Guess who can change our pervasive gun culture in Indianapolis? Us.”
The article ended with this statement: “Living in fear of another mass shooting at our schools isn’t living, and training teachers to use guns isn’t the solution."
I agree with everything said in this column. I want to express an opinion about training teachers to use guns in the classroom. I am a 35-year retired career teacher and I want to say: There is no place in the classroom for a gun-toting teacher. There is too much going on in any classroom with any number of students for there to be a gun ready to be used by the teacher. For safety reasons it would have to be locked up or otherwise, a teacher would risk a student getting hold of it and causing a severe problem.
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Many times students are stronger and larger than the teacher and could easily overpower the individual and take control of the gun if it was on his body. Many teachers would have no interest in carrying a gun and having to be responsible for it in a classroom of students. Why add guns to an already busy classroom culture? It is incomprehensible that some of our legislators and general public think arming teachers would be a wise decision. It is obvious to me that those promoting the carrying of guns in the classroom have not been in our schools on a daily basis to gain a true understanding of the perils of having gun-toting teachers. The legislators that are pushing this idea are not realistic and need to be stopped.
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Our schools have changed tremendously over the last several years. Students used to only have fire drills, then tornado drills were added and now we have armed-shooter drills. When the Columbine shootings occurred, I taught in a building that had a wooded area along the back. The door that my students and I went out of during a fire drill and stood on the sidewalk and waited for the all clear was along this wooded area. I was somewhat paranoid about how someone could be in those woods and with an AR-15 style rifle mow down all of us. Fear began in the schools at that time and continues to this day. A teacher friend who recently retired after 42 years in the classroom said never in all of the years of teaching did she think she would end her career having to practice how to crawl out of a window. The population of a school includes many who are unable to do that. What do you do with those unable to crawl out the window to escape from a building that is under siege? What do you do with those in wheelchairs or others unable to walk? Guns have created this scenario. It is a sad situation. I still have a family member who is a teacher and two young grandchildren who have several years of school left, so I hope things turn around soon. Being fearful in the classroom is not a healthy situation.
It is time for those with the power to say no to guns to do so for the sake of our children and our schools. The number of guns in American society has increased dramatically over the past few years. Why increase that number by arming our teachers?
R. J. Bradburn is an Indiana native, graduate of Purdue and a retired Indiana secondary teacher who lives in Fishers.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Those who think guns belong in Indiana classrooms aren't in classrooms
