Protect our Kids, Protect our Teachers... Through All Grades

By Sydney Cheuvront



Seventeen deadly school shootings in 2018.

Great Mills, Maryland has been added to the list of shootings that seems never-ending.

But what happens after the gunfire?  How can educators take back their classroom?

These questions surround elementary and high school teachers and even college professors.

Mindy Brame, Liz McSorley and Kristina Bell all wonder about these questions.  They worry about the future in their classrooms and for their students.  From violence with younger students to receiving threats, the fear of being the next shooting is always in the back of their minds.

And it's not easy having to explain what to do if it ever happened or how to move forward.

Violence from Students in Elementary School

Mindy Brame is a second-grade teacher at Oak Ridge Elementary in High Point, North Carolina.  She says that she has to assure her students that they are safe during times of lockdowns.

Source: Campus Safety Magazine

"We were told just to reiterate to the students that they are safe and that school is a safe place," Brame said. "We were told just to try to make them feel like we've got everything under control."

One response from a student shocked Brame.

"One student said that her mom was going to send in a door stopper for her book bag," Brame said.

Many parents have been giving their children door stoppers to protect them.  The stopper can still keep the door closed even if the lock is compromised.  This can buy students, teachers and police more time if a shooting were to occur.

But the door stopper would do very little if the threat came from inside the classroom.

Brame described a student who threatened her and his classmates.  She feared the student could harm someone.

"It was a student who bragged that he was going to steal the souls from students and that he was a demon," Brame said. "He did threaten to shoot me, the students and the assistant principal."

This student was never suspended and it never went on the school report.  Teachers were told it was because of the negative publicity the school would have received.  

Source: Campus Safety Magazine

"That happens a lot," Brame said.  "However, the student has not gotten help and continues to be a concern.  Although now, he is just heavily medicated."

Brame believes that many students' issues, like the one she discusses, stem from multiple avenues.

Children are exposed to adult subject matter too early through the Internet and video games and are not properly monitored.  She also feels that they are taught to be competitive with one another at an early age through standardized testing.  The focus of school has shifted from students to numbers.

"I do have a theory that we are not meeting the emotional needs of our children anymore," Brame said.

Threats in High School

Moving on to high school should be an exciting time in a student's life, but with the current state of affairs, it could end the student's life.

Hearing about school shootings in another state scares teachers and students around the nation.  But when it could happen in our own backyard.

Liz McSorley is a special education student teacher at Ledford High School in Thomasville, North Carolina.

Two days after the Parkland shooting, her school received a threat.

An unknown student called in the night before and threatened to shoot up the school the next day.  McSorley was shocked to walk into the school and hear the news.

"The kids were worried and were pulled out [of school] because parents were concerned," McSorley said.

McSorley's students had many questions the next day.  She felt it was her duty to address them.

"It's very important to discuss. It takes time out of a lesson [but] it's their life," McSorley said.

While this event had an impact on the students, it had an even bigger one on McSorley.  She now looks at her future profession in a different light, noting new safety implications she has to keep in mind.  She says she is definitely more scared to teach when she is the head of the classroom.

"I've been thinking about how I would set up my future classroom to include furniture that would be easy to move, but big enough for students to hide behind and not get injured," McSorley said.  "It made me more scared because I'm not even in my first year of teaching and I've already experienced a school threat."

McSorley also worries about the students she would care for.  According to a study from Penn State University, many students experience post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and burnout after a school shooting.  McSorley has added challenges.

"Because I'd be teaching special needs students, it would be even more of a challenge to try to ease their emotions," McSorley said.

Many people overlook how important a teacher's job is and just what it entails.  Now there is a direct safety risk, something McSorley does not take lightly.

"[The threat] just made me realize that by becoming a teacher, I just sort of signed up to put my life second to my students' safety," McSorley said.  "That is definitely not what I imagined I would have to ever do, but school violence is becoming more of a problem, unfortunately."

McSorley is correct.  School shootings are becoming too common, but she, like many others, does not know a clear solution.  But she offers some ways schools could improve.

"I think schools should be required to teach students and teachers on a regular basis what to do, where to hide and where to move desks in case there is a shooting," McSorley said.  "More police officers or school resource officers trained in stopping a shooter should be required in every school and they should be trained to respond to that type of situation."

Until some changes are put into place, McSorley, along with other teachers and student teachers, is left to wonder what high school could be next in the headlines.

What Happens in College?

When students graduate from high school and move on to college the chance of a school shooting does not rest.

Some of the deadliest school shootings have occurred on college campuses, according to Dayton Daily News.

 One of the most notable shootings happened only a little over a decade ago.

The shooting at Virginia Tech in April of 2007 rocked the nation.  No one had seen such destruction and death on a college campus in decades.  Thirty-two people were killed and dozens were wounded.  

However, the school was fined by the U.S. Department of Education after not properly alerting students when shots first rang out.

Now many colleges across the nation are preparing plans in case of an active shooter.

High Point University professor Kristina Bell recalls a faculty meeting in 2015 with a video detailing what professors and students should do in the case of a shooting.

"It talked about how our first step should be to run away to safety if we can," Bell said.  "If we can't run, we should hide and make it look like it's an empty room, and if that doesn't work, we should fight."

She told her students this and was met with mixed reactions.

"They kind of looked at me.  Some were wide-eyed, others nodded," Bell said.  "They didn't respond verbally."

Many students and professors worry that at a campus like HPU they are more susceptible to being in danger during a school shooting.  The school features designs that focus more on aesthetics than safety.  It would not protect students in the event of an active shooter.  From the open spaces to glass classrooms, many students and professors could be sitting ducks.

The HPU Game Lab where Bell often teaches

"Sometimes I think about how the Game Lab is all glass, and I get nervous," Bell said.  "Or that all of our doors have windows.  I have certainly thought about the best way to hide or respond in all of the classrooms I teach."

While college campuses are more spacious, classrooms like the one Bell described can be extremely dangerous in the event of a school shooting.

And on top of taking time away from teaching, Bell also worries about when she has to send her son to school.  She says that many kindergarten classes treat active shooter drills as a game, where the child should stay quiet when he or she hears an alarm, in order for younger kids to understand what to do in a situation.

"People are discussing which one is better for a four or five-year-old, which is crazy to have to think about," Bell said.

...

While different schools handle shootings differently, everything is connected.

The student teacher worries about when she has her own classroom.  The second-grade teacher worries about moving forward.  The professor worries about her easily targetable classroom and then when her child will begin school.


With no clear solution in sight, these three women's anxieties are warranted.  

Related Stories

• https://www.npr.org/2018/02/22/588069918/how-school-shootings-have-changed-the-teaching-profession
• https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2018/02/teaching-while-afraid/553931/