Global Courant 2023-05-10 05:06:14
5/9/2023 – School shootings are on the rise. Last year was the highest number of shootings since Ed Week began tracking the issue in 2018. So far this year there have been 19 shootings at K-12 schools, killing or injuring 30 people, and communities are struggling with how to stop the violence.
At a Virginia school safety town hall, parents told FOX Monday night that mental health and communication should be one of the top concerns for school districts.
“We need information, concrete information, so I can make a solid risk decision about whether or not the school is safe enough for my daughter,” said Dan Verton, a student parent at Fairfax County Public Schools.
“I think more emphasis on counseling and some kind of emotional support in school really makes me feel better about sending my daughters here,” says Paul Thomas, also an FCPS parent.
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Some see arming teachers as a way to fight back in the event of a school shooting. FOX spoke to a group in Texas called the Cinco Peso Training Group, who have made it their mission to equip educators with the tools to protect themselves and their students from an armed intruder.
“The term we use for that is direct responder,” said Mike Lane, a co-founder of the group. Lane is a retired police chief and current police chief at a Texas public school.
Authorities are investigating a home possibly linked to the Nashville school shooting Monday, March 27, 2023, in Nashville, Tennessee. Nashville police identified the victims of the shooting at a private Christian school Monday as three 9-year-old students and three adults in their 60s, including the school’s principal. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)
More than 40 counties in Texas have educators who have completed the training, but Lane said there are many conversations before someone picks up a firearm.
“We took the basic model that a police officer gets at the academy and expanded that with a long, long shot and a lot more detail about it,” he said.
First, the superintendent and school board decide whether to allow armed teachers. Then they ask for a response from the community. If the community supports the idea, the district goes to the faculty to see if anyone wants to volunteer. All “defenders” – the term Lane and his team use to talk about those who complete training – are volunteers. No one is obliged to follow this training.
For those interested: Lane said his group conducts extensive psychological evaluations and background checks before accepting anyone into their training. All defenders are also required to work in their district for about two years so colleagues can testify to how they handle pressure and stress. Lane said he narrows down the pool of applicants based on these evaluations. The training goes beyond firearms and includes the nationwide Stop the Bleed program, which teaches people how to respond to victims in life-threatening situations. After completing the multi-day training, defenders return to the court on a monthly basis to keep their skills up to par.
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All this training, Lane said, will save lives.
“Equipping people, training them and giving them the tools to respond in an emergency situation will undoubtedly make a difference in the number of casualties, injuries or other issues, regardless of the type of event.” ,” he said.
Lane added that defenders are not substitutes for first responders and they are not trained to knock down an attacker. The goal is to give teachers the opportunity to defend themselves and their students.
“We want to prepare and protect those children and staff as best we can to fill the gap between the time of the incident and when first responders can arrive,” he said.
A student is hugged as he arrives at Uvalde Elementary, now protected by a fence and Texas State Troopers, for the first day of school, Tuesday, September 6, 2022, in Uvalde. Students in Uvalde are returning to campuses for the first time since the Robb Elementary shooting, which killed two teachers and 19 students. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
A chief inspector, who identified himself as a defender, said he thinks the program is even more important after recent shootings in rural areas like his.
“The Uvalde tragedy was really a wake-up call to small rural communities in our state that school safety and security must be our top priority,” said Brad Burnett, Superintendent of Jacksboro Independent School District, about two hours outside of Dallas.
Burnett said the defender program was already in place when he became superintendent, but as someone who has had the training, he supports giving his staff the option to be armed.
“We’ve seen a lot of support in our community and also just in our region to train educators on how to carry a firearm to protect students. So I see it as a positive thing as a school leader,” he said.
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Critics say more guns in the classroom is not the answer to school safety.
“Let’s be very clear about the situation we’re talking about here,” said Kris Brown, president of gun safety group Brady United. “A schoolteacher teaching a class with 20, 30, 40 students in the room is supposed to have easy access to a firearm, want to use it, and then successfully shoot the gunman without any massacre of other students.”
Brown said she was also concerned that students would gain access to the firearm.
“There is a real risk of that gun being found by a student when the teacher goes to the bathroom,” she said. “Do they have to tie up fully loaded all the time while teaching? And what do the children think of a teacher carrying a loaded gun?’
A protester holds signs calling for an end to gun violence in Washington, DC on June 8, 2022. (Nathan Howard/Getty Images)
Brown said her group supports the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act passed by Congress last year. The legislation allocated money for crisis intervention, banned those convicted of domestic violence from owning a firearm, and increased funding for school security.
Parents in Fairfax County said guns in schools make them uncomfortable, even with adequate training.
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“I’ve been a Homeland Security professional and former Marine for decades, so arming teachers is the worst idea you can think of,” Verton said. “You can’t give a teacher who’s never handled a firearm, or in such a stressful situation, a gun and let them make that shared decision.”
Sixteen states, including Virginia, currently prohibit staff from having firearms in school. However, more than 30 states allow educators to carry a gun, but many have restrictions and regulations.
Sally Persons is a senior producer for the Fox News Channel. You can follow her on Twitter, @sapersons.
