December 12, 2012, a shooting occurred at Sandy Hook Elementary in which 27 people were killed. As violence in schools continues to surface on the news time after time, an idea has been brought to attention: should teachers be armed? It is difficult to say for sure how the idea would play out, but there are still plenty of faults. Something needs to be done about security in school, but arming teachers is not the answer.

Though the idea of several armed teachers throughout the school could scare off potential shootings, it is unlikely that the teachers would be trained enough to be trusted in a dangerous situation such as a shooting. Most teachers are unlikely to be trained with weapons, so putting guns in the hands of several untrained teachers will only create more problems.

“I don’t think it’s practical,” said Hunter Rose (12). Rose agreed that something needs to be done about school security, but suggested another means of protection as an alternative. “We need to have a liaison officer at every school,” said Rose. Rather than switching out security guards for several untrained teachers, adding proven liaison officers to every school system would be a great upgrade over the nation’s current system. Some schools still are lacking any security at all.

The final problem, and likely the most important, is trusting a teacher with a gun to use it as self defense only. Take a scenario where a teache is in heated rant at his class. Now imagine knowing that the teacher has a concealed gun on them that could be pulled out if they finally lose their temper. This is not a likely event, but having an armed weapon in the classroom could lead to other dangers aside from shootings from students and outsiders.

Something needs to be done about school violence. The news is constantly rolling in new stories of shootings and violence. Violence in schools will continue to occur until a change is made, but arming teachers is neither a safe nor practical solution.

School Shootings:

Shootings since 1980: 137

Shootings in 2013 alone in the U.S.: 30

Shootings in 2012 in the U.S.: 16

Security guards at Northern: 1