As the "Tags" say, please leave all political arguments out of this. None of the "Guns shouldn't be legal", or "only in 'Murica" crap I see everytime a major shooting happens.

I strictly just want to know what other people think about Teachers be armed in schools. To me, I think it's pretty dumb. Quite frankly, Teachers almost certainly rate significantly higher on the stress scale then students do, and that to me would indicate a higher probability of a mental breakdown, and if they are armed, could quickly turn into a horrific situation.

What makes me post this, is I was just listening to the news, and apparently a school in Texas(Brooksmith), and another school in..Arkansas I think?(this is strictly what I heard on the news, no idea if there are others), that are allowing their teachers and staff to be armed(they are trained by the local police force), and even post signs outside of the school saying "Our Staff is armed in order to protect our students". This is just...totally crazy if you ask me. Students at least have less responsibilities to cause them to go off the deep end. They don't have to worry about all the stuff that advlthood brings, nor do they have to worry about making sure X amount of students pass the national standardized testing, lest they lose their main source of income, they don't have an entire class worth of parents ragging on them to make sure "Johnny passes this test so he can get his football scholarship", or anything like that. (Please note, I am not saying students don't have stress, just that it's not going to be as high as a teachers).

So, discuss!

That question shouldn't even need to be asked in the first place...

What the-

No, of course not!

Maybe have an Officer on-sight at all times, but giving teachers heat?!

Oh, I agree, but apparently there are some people who disagree. I imagine we have someone on these forums who might be able to better explain why that MIGHT be an ok idea. On the other hand, I would like to hear why the people(like me) who don't think it is a good idea, don't think it's a good idea, LOL.

Teachers aren't bodyguards, and I'd like to meet the teacher who can backflip to his or her desk in time to grab a weapon. Why? Because most parents wouldn't be comfortable with a teacher having a holstered weapon near their children (neither would school districts with how lawsuit happy most people are nowadays), so it would have to stay away from where instruction is happening and where students are. A student could also get their hands on it, which means the desk drawer or cabinet would need to be locked. And what mostly untrained teacher (yes, trained by the police force, but that's hardly enough to prepare someone mentally for a full-blown shooting) would have the reaction time to head over to a cabinet or drawer, unlock it, load the weapon (assuming another regulation makes it so that the ammo needs to be out of the weapon), and shoot?

Not to mention that again, teachers are not bodyguards.

Hope I was apolitical enough. While I hated my high school experience in Miami, I thought they did school security pretty well (one of the few things the schools got right). Schools were locked in and you were buzzed in by armed police officers at the schools I went to. There were only 1 or 2 entrances to the entire school. I mean, stupid stuff still happened, but I do remember seeing the officers pat down suspicious looking students.

I think another major thing is just how stressed out teachers are as it is having to keep up with regulation after regulation; I can't imagine having to keep up with students, their parents (ohh... their parents), lesson plans, fact checking (hopefully in most cases), keeping credentials up to date and going, keeping up with school rules, attending conferences, AND getting and maintaining a gun license. They don't get paid enough for that, but that's a different story, haha.

As a former kindergardener I'm sure I'm not alone when I say I would've felt so much safer knowing that my bi-polar teacher was carrying a semi automatic handgun or worse without any bit of knowledge as to how to fire it or even maintain it. No doubts.

Teachers shouldn't have guns. Trained security in the schools should have guns. I know parents will react with "but muh sensitive children", security could stay within a portion of the office, as long as they're there.

Obviously they would be trained, but I still don't think its a good idea, unless they are trained extensively and very professional.

I'm for armed police officers though, instead of arming the teachers.

My dads a teacher, and having used and operated guns his whole life I would trust him. My 70 something year old chemistry teacher? Not so much.

I see the pros and cons, but most pros can be fixed with upgrading police security.

No. Teachers are only human, and humans make mistakes. Once a careless teacher leaves a gun unattended (and it will happen), it will likely lead to injuries/deaths.

I should note that I don't think there should be any guns on school grounds, even if it's security guards rather than teachers, for the same reason.

Soooo...a new twist! Apparently my wife believes that this is ok. She says, and I quote "With us having two daughters in school, wouldn't you rather have a teacher be armed, and able to stop someone that comes into the school firing, or would you rather them be left defenseless". She however does say that any teacher armed thusly should be forced to undergo a rigorous background check and extensive psychological screening, as well as at least 100 hours spent training with said firearm and the safety involved of keeping such(ie: not just a short class with the local police)". So, gotta say I'm a bit surprised, I honestly thought my wife would agree with me on that.

Again, I believe having a policeman on-sight every day would suffice. We have that at our school, and it's really effective.