By Nellie Perry
SAN MARCOS, Texas – After the Parkland shooting, in the search for solutions to increase school safety, the idea of arming teachers K-12 has surfaced.
Students and faculty at Texas State University, as well as other members of the San Marcos community, have conflicting opinions on the idea.
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| Clayton Taylor Photo by: O'Bryant Moralles |
Clayton Taylor, a single father in San Marcos, said he supports the efforts to arm teachers as long as they have proper training.
“I actually just enrolled my daughter in a private school and they asked me, ‘Are you going to be ok with teachers being armed? They’ve had training.’ My understanding is that they had a three day course that cops or whatever other military group does. I’m cool with it,” said Taylor.
Others in the community have also shown support for the idea as long as the proper training is involved.
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| Adrian Gonzales Photo by: Ben Blanton |
Adrian Gonzalez, a major in concrete industry management, said not every teacher should be armed, but he does support the idea of specific teachers who have been trained being armed.
“If we’re talking about every teacher then I say no, but if we’re talking about specific teachers who’ve had a past with firearms in a positive manner who we believe can protect children then yes they should,” said Gonzalez.
Dr. Donald S. Inbody, a senior lecturer for political science who served 28 years in the Navy, said he does not support the idea because the kind of training necessary to properly prepare teachers is not something realistically achievable.
“Well, fundamentally I think it’s a bad idea because they are not well trained using firearms… I have no fundamental problem against people carrying concealed weapons, I just don’t think it’s a good idea to use it in that environment for that group of people because they aren’t trained to use it under a stressful circumstance,” said Inbody.
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| Donald S. Inbody Photo by: Sarah Atterbury |
Inbody said he believes the solution is increasing the internal security of schools, but there is a financial barrier.
“What the school has to do from its own point of view is increase internal security… Limit the access to the school to a single entrance during the day. I don’t know, they may have to do things like make the doors and the glass harder or something like that… That’s expensive, I don’t know if that’s practical or not… Armed guards may be the answer in some environments and still, you’re talking money… I don’t know where that money’s going to come from,” said Inbody.
Others in the community believe that rather than basing the decision on training, we should allow the teachers to decide.
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| Jacob Seabolt Photo by: Hallie Colbert |
Jacob Seabolt, a criminal justice major, said he believes that any adult who wants to carry a gun should be able to. He said the idea of having a gun-free zone is doing more harm than good.
“I think any adult should be able to walk around with any weapon they want to, so if a teacher chooses to, they should be able to without any kind of rule stopping them,” said Seabolt. “I think if you just take off the signs that say ‘gun-free zone’ and you let people just have freedom, I think they can take care of their own problems. For instance, you never see a police station be shot up.”
Some members of the community do not support the idea at all.
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| Garrett Bus Photo by: Madison Diaz |
Garrett Bus, a theater major, said he believes that arming teachers could be detrimental to the relationship between teachers and students.
“So many times, specifically like the hell teachers in middle school have to deal with, if they had a gun I think that would change the dynamic – the teacher-student dynamic – a lot more,” said Bus.
Ben Salinas, a political science major, said he believes arming teachers would be asking too much of them because they should not be asked to put their life on the line for students.
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| Ben Salinas Photo by: Melissa Monrroy |
“I definitely think teachers should do the best that they can do to protect their students, but I don’t think we should put so much of burden on these teachers because they’re not trained to handle these types of situations in the way law enforcement is trained… And although I believe most teachers would give their lives to students I think it’s a lot asking teachers to lay down their lives for a bunch of students,” said Salinas.
It is clear there are many different opinions on the topic in the San Marcos community. An important part of finding solutions is hearing all sides of an argument and finding a solution that benefits everyone. Readers are urged to have conversations with people of opposing views and find a solution in the best interests of everyone.
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