Inspenet, June 27, 2023.
A recent RAND Corporation report states that more than 50% of teachers in the United States believe that being armed would make students less safe; while one in five teachers says they would be interested in bringing a gun to school.
The survey conducted between October and November 2022 revealed that 54% of teachers think that the use of firearms would make schools less safe, 20% believe that gun programs for teachers would increase school safety and security. 26% believe that it would not have a significant impact on security.
According to the survey, an estimated 550,000 of the 3 million elementary and secondary teachers in the United States would choose to carry a firearm at school if given permission.
Armed teachers in schools: the great debate
The debate over arming the country’s teachers is not new and tends to resurface after the school shootings. However, according to the report, bullying is the safety issue that half of the teachers are most concerned about.
After the bullying, high school teachers show increased concern about drug use and fights between students. On the other hand, primary school teachers are more concerned about violence directed towards teachers, while secondary school teachers consider that self-harm is one of their main concerns.
According to the data, approximately half of the teachers surveyed perceive that the physical security measures in their schools, such as locks, identification cards, cameras and security personnel, have a positive impact on the school environment. Only 5% of teachers consider that these security measures have a negative effect.
In another fall 2022 survey, 70% of school district administrators reported increasing their investments in school safety measures in response to the May 2022 shooting at a Uvalde, Texas school.
Likewise, teachers expressed greater concern for the safety of their students than for their own.
After analyzing the results, the researchers pointed to some areas ripe for future research, such as studying schools or districts that have implemented gun programs for teachers to see how they work in practice.
In addition, the development of approaches to school safety planning that can balance the most common and lower level forms of school violence is proposed.
It is also suggested that a comprehensive cost-benefit analysis of programs that allow teachers to carry guns be carried out, in order to assess the full cost to schools and states.
Loading...
