“I’m a Teacher. Don’t Ask Me to Stop a Mass Shooting. I Can’t.” A response

TL/DR: The Law Enforcement/Educator relationship to stop Mass Shootings

Our Schools are responsible for defending our children, and need support to do so

In a touching piece, Sarah Chaves, a Boston-area educator, discusses the despair and feeling of helplessness she experiences in the wake of mass shootings. She highlights the feeling of futility, and the fear that her efforts during a critical incident will not be enough to save her and her students.

Her plea, that she not be relied on to stop a mass shooting, is perfectly reasonable if she means that she should not be expected to confront a gunman. However, if it means that administrators and teachers should bear no responsibility to react to a threat, then we have to part ways.

Even if all guns were banned in the United States, car and knife attacks of public areas would still be an issue. European car attacks claimed hundreds of lives in previous years, and knife attacks in China and Japan have claimed similar dead and wounded to American Mass Shootings. There is a very rare, but real possibility that a man under the spell of a violent ideology, or suffering from homicidal nihilism, will attack strangers in the near future. He will likely attack an area that is poorly defended, and unprepared for his malevolence.

Being ready for such violence is no different than ancient tribes being ready for aggressive neighbors, storied city-states being ready for their rivals, medieval peoples being ready for marauders and invaders, and settlers being ready for bandits and raiders. It is actually a blessing to be living in such a peaceful time, for so many decades, that a single dedicated lunatic is some of our worst problems.

Peaceful times, however, are no excuse for complacency. In the wake of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting, titanic political forces have shifted. These forces have made it a political, economic, and social priority to secure schools, deter mass shooters, and prosecute those that consider it. It should be a point of national embarrassment that these efforts weren’t made April 21, 1999 in the wake of the Columbine attack. Lessons two decades in the making are being implemented, of which teachers need to be a trained component.

• Police Officers are conducting audits using the concept of “Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design.” This system of public design doesn’t just deter mass shooters and terrorists, but muggers, thieves, and trespassers through structure, lighting, and barricade choices.
• Funding has been allocated for the hardening of structures.
• Schools are securing doors when classes are in session.
• Schools are hiring School Resource Officers to both defend the school, and to build a much needed rapport between Law Enforcement and the Community.
• Schools are training Guardians, armed administrators whose daily responsibilities are not in the classroom. They undergo rigorous training, and are expected to work in concert with Law Enforcement during a critical incident.
• Schools are practicing lockdown and evacuation drills, giving educators the option to choose what makes sense in the context of a critical incident. This gives men and women the flexibility to operate in their environment, based on the information given, rather than freezing in fear.
• Schools are interfacing with First Responders on how best to communicate during a critical incident, allowing for better communication and information when seconds count.
• Schools are teaching staff basic first aid and blood control, skills that are worth learning whether responding to a gunshot wound, cardiac arrest, or a paper cut. Teachers and administrators trained in such skills could be critical for a timely response to injured persons during a critical incident.
• State legislatures are passing “Red Flag” laws, allowing Law Enforcement and the Judicial system to take action against openly unbalanced and aggressive persons in their community. The tightening of legal definitions to provide clear charges, and harsh penalties, for those who threaten mass slaughter also eliminates the gray area between free speech and dangerous threats.

By redesigning our public spaces, hardening our structures, limiting access, having formidable guardians, training for the incident and its aftermath, and by strengthening our laws to take on such threats, we are significantly reducing the chances that schools will be picked as targets. This is because they won’t be attractive to predators anymore. Sadly, this does mean that maniacs will shift their attention to other targets of opportunity, but if we do this properly, schools will no longer be hapless victims, and the response to aggressors will be swift, efficient, and life-saving.

This is perhaps the most important takeaway, our reaction should not be of fear and despair, but of innovation and resolve. Teachers like Sarah Chaves will need to be a part of this reformation.