DeVos wants to turn the government into an arms dealer for schools

Jonathan Perloe
Sep 2, 2018 · 4 min read

A misguided proposal by U.S. Education Secretary Besty DeVos would award federal grants to buy guns for schoolteachers as a way to prevent school shootings. Arming teachers is a poor policy that substitutes NRA rhetoric about “good guys with guns” for rational solutions to prevent gun violence in schools.

Credit: BBDO Atlanta

DeVos’ plan represents a radical shift in education policy that for years has taken the position that the federal government should not fund weapons procurement for schools. It ignores previous congressional school funding measures that expressly prohibit using federal taxpayer dollars to buy guns. In a cynical ploy to circumvent the prohibition of funding school weapons purchases, DeVos is contemplating raiding the Student Support and Academic Enrichment program — designed to support low income schools — to buy guns. Arming teachers is not the way to support students or enrich their academic experience.

Continuing the leadership of the Connecticut congressional on federal gun safety policy, Senator Murphy (D-CT) immediately offered an amendment, co-sponsored by Senator Blumenthal (D-CT), reiterating “the policy of this congress, not congress in general, but this congress that federal funds should not be used to arm teachers.” Despite an outcry of opposition, two weeks later DeVos is holding her ground, remarking “I have no intention of taking any action concerning the purchase of firearms or firearms training for school staff under the [Elementary and Secondary Education Act].”

Educational advocacy organizations, law enforcement experts, parents and teachers roundly oppose the strategy of turning educators into armed security guards. After President Donald Trump floated the idea of arming teachers in response to the Parkland, Fla., school shooting, the National Association of School Resource Officers said, it “strongly recommends that no firearms be on a school campus except those carried by carefully selected, specially trained school resource officers.”

Former New York City Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said arming teachers to prevent school shootings is “the height of lunacy.” Rick Myers, executive director of the Major Cities Chiefs Association said he would be “hard-pressed to find someone in policing who thinks it’s a good idea to arm teachers.”

As Debra Ciamacca, a Marine Corps officer turned high school teacher said, “guns have no place in the classroom” because teachers will never have the training to make the split second decisions needed in active shooter situations. Furthermore, “weapons are not conducive to the teacher/student relationship.”

Arming teachers, regardless of how highly trained they are, is sure to lead to unintentional shootings putting students at greater risk than they are of being killed or injured in a school shooting. There are numerous examples of supposedly trained school safety officers, as well as teachers, coming dangerously close to killing students.

Days before the Parkland shooting, a third grader in Maplewood, Minn., shot a school liaison officer’s holstered firearm without his knowledge. In March a school resource officer in Alexandria, Va., accidentally discharged his firearm. As one parent remarked, “We’re talking about arming teachers, and even the security personnel that are trained can’t seem to make it work.”

Even among trained police officers, shooting accuracy is shockingly low. A 2008 Rand Corporation study of New York City police reported an average hit rate of just 18 percent during gunfights. That’s one reason why Lily Eskelsen García, president of the National Educational Association, calls the idea of arming teachers “ill-conceived, preposterous, and dangerous.” In a February, 2018 letter to President Trump, Randi Weingarten, president of the 1.7 million member American Federation of Teachers wrote, “The response we have heard is universal, most notably from educators who are gun owners, military veterans and National Rifle Association members: Teachers don’t want to be armed; we want to teach.”

In a recent survey conducted by the National Education Association, 82 percent of its members said they would not carry a gun in school. Two-thirds of educators who own guns would not consider carrying a firearm on school property, and two-thirds said they would feel less safe with armed teachers in their school. The voices of those who know best overwhelmingly oppose putting guns in classrooms.

It’s time for Besty DeVos to listen. As Weingarten said in response to the Trump administration’s latest attempt to arm educators as the centerpiece of its school safety strategy, “She wants to turn the U.S. government into an arms dealer for schools. That’s insane.”

If you agree the policy is insane, please sign my petition telling Betsy DeVos to not allow federal grants to be used to arm school teachers.

Jonathan Perloe
Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade