Dive Brief:
- Quietly and more frequently, schools are letting teachers and other district workers carry guns as a preventative tactic, reports The Washington Post.
- Mass public shootings have increased, with schools frequently becoming targets, despite the decline in U.S. gun violence since the 1990s.
- In California, at least two districts are already allowing teachers to bring guns to their classrooms, and policies in that state and beyond often see administrators selecting specific employees and requiring them to undergo training and evaluation.
Dive Insight:
Shootings in K-12 classrooms have tripled since 2011. As an alternative to policies that arm teachers, some districts are also now employing an estimated 10,000 to 14,000 school resource officers nationwide. Other safety measures use metal detectors, surveillance cameras, and visitor management systems.
The NAACP's Legal Defense and Education Fund, the Children's Law Center, and Public Counsel all advocate against "over-reliance" on police officers and weaponry in schools, saying it has a negative impact on student learning and promotes the school-to-prison pipeline. The latter phenomenon sees more students dropping out and subsequently being funneled into the criminal justice system.
