No Guns For This Teacher

Wearing a tacky sweater as I get ready to teach the kids!

I feel compelled to write this, if for no other reason than to get this off my chest.  I cannot stand that this is even a conversation I've had more than once over the past week.  There are people out there posting and commenting and tweeting that teachers should be armed.  I, for one, am not going to carry a gun into a school, ever and I don't want to work at a school where there are guns.  I don't want any part of it.

As a teacher, I'm not a peace keeper, I'm a peace maker.  I teach kids how to resolve their conflicts with words and how to speak to each other in a way that is helpful and constructive.  I teach my students how to walk away when angry, how to take deep breaths, to ignore things that aren't worth their energy or to speak up and stand up for themselves and others when necessary.  I encourage them not to fight with their fists or mean words.  I encourage them to speak kindly.  I encourage them to be compassionate and loving when possible. I encourage them to accept differences, respect others opinions and the rights of everyone to learn, and to try to work in harmony.  I teach my kids how to make peace, not war.

This is a point I've seen made over and over again, and one I'd like to reiterate: If I wanted to be a police officer or a soldier or an FBI agent or any other profession where carrying a gun is part of the job - I would have done that. If I wanted to be in a profession where there was a risk to my life (think firefighter for example) I would have done that.  It is my job to keep kids safe, but I never became an educator thinking, I could die at work trying to save one of my students from gunfire. That wasn't what I signed up for when becoming an educator.

I signed up for so many life-disrupting and CHALLENGING things, but not to die.  Not to carry a gun.  Not to be forced to choose between my own life and the life of an innocent child.  I pray I will never, ever have to make that choice.  I teach elementary school and I cannot imagine that I could stand by and let one of my eight-year old students get shot.  In the end that's how those teachers felt - whether they taught at Sandy Hook or Stoneman Douglas - they shielded their students and in turn, lost their lives because they couldn't stand by and watch a child die.

I'm not going to talk about gun control or about changing laws.  I'm not going to talk about mental health care or any combination of the two.  I have my opinions about politics and politicians using any tragedy as a means to their end.  However, I will say, we need to honor and respect the professional opinions of experienced educators when they say THIS CHILD NEEDS HELP.  I will say more mental health resources and more professional counselors are needed in schools to handle the ever-growing psychological and emotional needs of our students.

I will not carry a gun to teach seven and eight year-old kids how to read, write, add, subtract, create and execute science experiments, history, etc. etc. etc.  I have a right as a teacher to finally say, enough is enough.  We've got to stop this, I agree, but I can guarantee you, teachers carrying guns is not the way to do it.  I will quit (and so will countless others) before I will carry a gun to work. Period.

To all of those who say guns aren't the problem, believe me when I say, guns aren't the solution either.

My deepest sympathies go out to every family who has lost a loved one in any of the school shootings.  I will continue to pray for a solution, for peace, and for comfort.  I will continue on my mission to be a peacemaker to honor those who have been taken in these tragedies.