Don’t Make Me a Soldier

Events of the last week have haunted educators around the country. School shootings are back in the news, and it seems like they never leave it anymore. We can talk for hours about how we got to this place as a society, but it is more productive to talk about how we can leave this painful and shameful chapter behind us.

We can all agree on one thing: children should be safe at school.

I have plenty of thoughts and feelings about school shootings. Like EVERY OTHER teacher in America, I have imagined what I would do if it happened in my town, my building, my classroom. How would I keep my students safe? What would I do to stop a shooter? What could I do?

In 2006, my drama students and I volunteered to take part in a simulation of a “mass casualty incident,” a dramatized school shooting staged by local and regional law enforcement, fire departments, and hospital personnel. They used our tiny junior high building as the scene of a homemade bomb and two shooters. A few adults and about twenty students volunteered to be victims and hostages on lockdown while the professionals rehearsed what they would do. I was the only teacher, and my son was one of the student volunteers.

Here’s an article about a mock mass casualty incident like ours: http://www.chronline.com/news/article_3cd1d0af-1bc4-5340-b252-a0298b53fc70.html?mode=jqm

It was very realistic, right down to professional makeup artists creating realistic wounds on the victims. We all had cards that listed our symptoms and accounted for the progression of our injuries over time. It was like a roleplaying game, only not fun. Really not fun.

I got to imagine what it was like to have my students hide in my room. I felt the real anger, frustration, and fear of a teacher who chose to break protocol to get students from the hall to come into my room, risking encountering the shooter when I did. I waited for forty-five minutes after the “shooting” for rescue, all the while moderating student conversations while hiding under desks.“What if this was real?”

I eventually rode in an ambulance with my son and another victim, and then I experienced an eerie disconnected feeling waiting at the hospital for word of his status and anything, anything else. It was surreal. It was awful. And it was FAKE.

I can only imagine what it is like for those who face real shooters. That said, you can bet I want to avoid a real “mass casualty incident.”

I appreciate those who would like common sense gun legislation passed, making it more difficult for disturbed individuals to get the guns that do the most damage. At least that is something. The problem is that it will take too long to effectively change the gun culture of America, particularly in small towns like mine. Guns are easily available, and that’s not likely to change soon.

Here’s an interesting opinion piece on America’s gun culture from the Baltimore Sun: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bs-ed-op-0218-gun-culture-20180216-story.html

I appreciate those who would like to see more security in our schools to protect the students and staff. There are elaborate systems for locking doors, metal detectors, armed guards, etc. If funding was available, I’d be all for it. Well, except for the fact that my safe-seeming little school would be more like a fortress than a place of learning, of curiosity, of hope, or of friendship. There are inner city schools that seem like they are on constant lock down. Is that where we are all headed?

Check out this article about how increased security measures may not be the answer from Scientific Americanhttps://www.scientificamerican.com/article/can-security-measures-really-stop-school-shootings/

I appreciate those who call for more support for victims of mental illness. In my teaching context, where poverty, drugs, homelessness and domestic instability affect so many families, I would certainly feel better if we had more services to relieve the stress and treat those who suffer from depression and anxiety. Yet, again, how will we be paying for these services? In a system that has been chronically underfunded, where will we find the money to solve this problem?

If you want to explore the mental health solution, here’s a Boston public radio commentary that makes some interesting points: http://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2018/02/20/parkland-school-shooting-erin-seaton

I fear that the problem will be solved like so many others we face in education, especially underfunded, rural education. We will give another job to the teachers – armed security guard.

We don’t need another job. You see, some people think that when we aren’t on vacation we are simply delivering lessons to the children and assigning homework. The truth is that we are coaching, counseling, comforting, and teaching social skills, personal hygiene, and good manners. We are guidance counselors, amateur psychiatrists, surrogate parents, life coaches, and all-day mentors to our students. Will we add to our busy professional development schedule firearms training and hand-to-hand combat? Will we to be expected to risk our lives in combat to protect our students?

Don’t get me wrong. I will do all I can to protect these kids. But, this is too much. Don’t put a gun in my hand. Don’t send me into battle. Arm me with more counselors. Arm me with community support, mentors, and volunteers. Arm me with more programs that encourage empathy, collaboration, and social skills. Arm me with more colleagues to make sure we get to every kid every day with everything they need.

Don’t make my school a fortress.
Don’t make me a soldier.

If you want me to be part of solving the problem, give me what I really need: the support to keep my students in a safe, caring, supportive, and learning-centered environment.

#ArmMeWith

Interested in the #ArmMeWith movement? https://www.weareteachers.com/armmewith/?utm_content=1519185676&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter

14 thoughts on “Don’t Make Me a Soldier

  1. Pingback: We’d Rather Have Tape | Stories From School

  2. Jessie Towbin

    Lynne,
    I really appreciate the way you presented your position with such care and balance, while still showing your passion. It’s a model for the tone I wish everyone would strive for. Thank you!

    1. Jessie Towbin

      Clarification: I mean that I wish everyone in our society, not on the blog, would strive for that tone.

  3. Suzie DuVal

    Thank you for this well-written and thoughtful article and for all of the interesting links. I am also a drama teacher and I think we often find ourselves playing an even larger role in helping students feel a sense of connection and community in their schools. The solution to the problem cannot be adding another job to overloaded teachers or convincing us to see our students as potential threats. Thanks for the insights!

    1. Lynne Olmos Post author

      Good points, Suzie. I really don’t know if I could pull the trigger on a former student. I also do not want to be suspicious of my students and size them up as potential targets. This is a whole new way of seeing things for me, and I don’t want that to be a part of my job. I have a lot of better ideas as to how to support my students as they make their way through this world.

  4. Gretchen Cruden

    Lynn,

    I teach in a small, rural school. I have four of my own children in the building-spread out in all of the classes. It is so hard when we have drills to know someone else would be taking care of my children the best they can of this were a real event. I remind myself that this feeling is the same feeling all parents feel when they send their children to school. It is my job to do the best I can to protect my students. Each one is someone’s child, loved by them as I love my own.

    That said, in addition to ALL of the things you said and that I agree with, I want some other things too. I want proper, up-to-date and informed skills delivered by real professionals in dealing with an intruder. Are lights off and hide the best we can do? What can I do best in my classroom based on lay-out, ages I teach,etc? I want locking mechanisms that will work and cannot be destroyed by a gun that are easy to use when you cannot think straight. I want ladders to escape my second story classroom if all else fails. Lastly? I want the very people desiring guns to be in the hands of teachers to show that same trust and support for teachers on other issues as well.

    Thank you for writing a piece from a teacher’s perspective. I appreciate the work you put into it. I am really glad these dialogs are beginning and hoping change is on the horizon.

    Gretchen

    1. Lynne Olmos Post author

      Gretchen, I, too, am overwhelmed – in a good way- by the dialogue. We need to talk this out. We should all come to a conclusion about the atmosphere we want to provide as educators, and the protection we can provide for our charges. It is so important.

    1. Lynne Olmos Post author

      Good to hear from you, Nancee. Thanks for the read. Happy belated, birthday neighbor. :0)

  5. Barney Peterson

    Lynne, this is so well-written and supported by references for more information. I totally agree with you: don’t make me a soldier!! I love my students and would much rather spend my last ounce of energy in the classroom showing them that love in ways that help them grow and develop as positive human beings. I do not want their last memory of me to be as a terrified, gun handling defender who must take the life of another person to protect them.

    1. Lynne Olmos Post author

      I agree so much, Barney. I don’t want the image of authority figure with a gun to be how my students see me. I am their second mom or grandma. I fiercely protect them with my love. A gun sends a very different message.

  6. Mark

    Thank you for sharing this, Lynne. If society were better armed with compassion and curiosity rather than hatred and certainty, gun laws wouldn’t matter.

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