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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsElementary kids find loaded gun teacher left in school bathroom
This is from 2016, but illustrates why arming teachers may not be such a good idea.
Beth Jean Dixon, 63, put her holstered pistol on a toilet tank when she used the unisex, one-toilet bathroom Aug. 25 at Cumberland Christian School, in Chambersburg, police said. They said she forgot about it and left.
Four children, ages 6 to 8, used the bathroom while the gun was on the toilet. One child told his parent, who told a teacher.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cops-teacher-left-gun-in-bathroom-elementary-kids-found-it/
Wounded Bear
(58,668 posts)Initech
(100,080 posts)Martin Eden
(12,870 posts)I don't think it's a good idea to arm teachers even if they remain sober.
Iggo
(47,558 posts)That should be added to every argument against.
Martin Eden
(12,870 posts)What happens when that stress is instantly transformed into fear and action due to the ever-present threat of having to make a snap decision to pull and fire that gun ... but it turns out to be a false alarm because that troubled student who ran into the room brandished a cell phone and not the handgun the teacher perceived in a moment of panic?
Veteran trained police officers make those kinds of mistakes. Expecting a classroom teacher to be an armed guard ready to use deadly force at a moment's notice is insane.
Is that the society we have become or aspire to be?
Iggo
(47,558 posts)Mariana
(14,858 posts)pnwmom
(108,980 posts)It turned out that it had been left there by a security guard.
Iggo
(47,558 posts)LanternWaste
(37,748 posts)This is an accurate illustration of why I think arming teaching staff is the most idiotic idea available.
We spend $100 billion a year combating terrorism, but for every one American killed by an act of terror in the United States or abroad in 2014, more than 1,049 died because of guns. I think that alone is a clear signal that we're held hostage by the gun industry through our own idiocy and inaction.