By Tyler Banks
It was just last year when news began creeping in about an active shooter situation at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. At first, nobody expected that it would end up being one of the largest mass shootings in American history. By the end of the day, police had confirmed the deaths of seventeen teenagers.
As a result of that shooting, students and adults came together in a protest. And what started as a one day march quickly grew into a nationwide movement.
From those protests, lawmakers came together, held accountable by the rising student activists, to create new and more efficient laws to help protect civilians from guns; to make sure that a shooting like the one at Marjory Stoneman Douglas never happens again.
And at first, it seemed like the activists had been victorious: Florida gun laws changed to raise the minimum age to own a gun, waiting periods were instituted and security was increased.
Or at least that’s what they thought.
The progress that thousands of people fought for was quickly reversed in a recent vote by the Florida Senate, passing a bill that would allow for teachers to wield firearms in the classroom. The Republican-led vote confirmed our greatest fears: America has an unhealthy obsession with guns—and there’s nothing we can do about it.
This hazardous method of protecting our youth is one that school boards across South Florida have come out against, further highlighting the differences in the two halves of the state.
In fact, none of the largest school districts in the state—Miami Dade, Broward, Hillsborough, and Orange county—plan to implement this bill in their schools.
Miami-Dade Schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho, has been a vocal advocate against the bill. In a Miami Herald interview, Carvalho said, “Teachers are not hired to carry guns,” and that’s the truth.
Despite the wishes of many Parkland students, the bill passed both houses of Congress and was signed into law by Governor Ron Desantis on May 8th.
This bill is an expansion of the guardian program created after the Parkland massacre, which allowed for armed school resource officers (SROs). Republican senators defeated the Democratic senators’ attempt to remove the section that allowed teachers to be trained and armed on school campuses as well, if they choose to.
Some teachers at MLEC have come out against this bill.
“Of course guns don’t belong in school, this is school. This not a gun range, this is not target practice. And the concept that an armed teacher is going to be able to protect someone, maybe, odds are against it, chaos in an emergency situation, I don’t think so,” Mr. Moffi, a teacher at MLEC, said.
However, some accept the necessity of protection in schools.
“I recognize that the SROs are trained to carry arms and handle emergencies. I choose to have confidence in school administration and security staff to keep students and teachers safe,” said Ms. MacDonald.
Problems are already apparent with the plans for arming teachers. When former governor Rick Scott signed the bill allowing for armed SROs, the state gave a $97 million for the training programs. However, only $9 million were actually used, because not enough people volunteered for the program.
By implementing guns in school, you’re not providing a sense of safety, it’s actually the opposite. The feeling lawmakers would be creating is one of complete and absolute fear. Something that has no place in a learning environment.
Though the safety of students should be a priority, there are other ways to achieve this than arming teachers. Common sense gun reform could easily solve the problem without turning school yards into war zones.
