From I Don’t Know How to Protect You Anymore to Don’t Make Me a Soldier to the #ArmMeWith hashtags, teachers clearly want to be involved in the conversation about making our schools safer—and we don’t want to carry a gun.

After one especially long day, my husband tweeted out this….

And within hours over 300 replies from across the country (note the themes). Here are some of the tweets:

• Tape
• I need so much tape
• An internet filter that doesn’t violate the free speech rights of my students researching current topics
• Tissues
• Tape
• A pencil sharpener that is industrial strength
• Scissors that stand up to repeatedly cutting cardboard
• More guidance counselors and instructional coaches
• Thumbtacks, field trips, 40 hour work weeks
• Tape
• Granola bars and vegetables
• A psychologist
• A counseling team and a separate registration team
• Tape
• A stapler that won’t run away in less than a week
• Enough SPED teachers
• Pencils, lots of pencils
• When I was a SPED teacher in a Behavior Support room, I needed good Reading Curriculum.
• A gun in the room would not help ever
• Copier, copier, copier, a classroom that’s warmer than 58 degrees, toner, copier
• Mold free rooms and leak proof ceilings
• Some tape?
• Internet that works in more than two classrooms at a time
• A pencil sharpner that lasts more than a school year
• A roof that doesn’t leak
• More than a class set of whatever novel we’re reading
• Support for kids who are most “At-risk”
• Whiteboard markers for students
• Counselors. Glue sticks that don’t dry up.
• A book budget
• Enough copy paper to last the year
• Hand soap
• I don’t mean to sound greedy but a really sturdy 3-hole punch would be amazing
• Real food that is cooked at school, not USDA prepacked food that tastes gross and isn’t healthy
• Bathroom breaks
• More markers!
• Classroom Autonomy
• Professional development
• Tape
• Lead-free water fountains, soft lights in classrooms, and markers, lots of markers
• Increased salaries for all teachers and support staff, more counselors, a lunch break.
• More than 3 min to pee
• Cameras that were functional, heat and AC that worked.
• Money to buy food for my students who have little at home
• New books
• Tape
• I’d like to have the rodent situation death with. And my office to be checked for mold.
• A reliable pencil sharpner
• Shoes for the kids who don’t have them
• Enough counselors/social workers
• More tissues
• You got a copier?

• How about tape?
• Door stops
• Pencils
• Internet that works even during state testing
• Bathrooms that work
• A raise for “paraprofessionals” who are hardly “para” but fully professional and are some of the hardest working individuals in a building
• An appreciation for the performing arts
• Pencils, hundreds of pencisl
• Reliable technology
• Field trips
• Color paper
• Tape
• Color post-it notes
• Toilet paper and hot water in student bathrooms
• Stand up desks for wiggle students
• Lead-free water fountains
• Soft lights for the classroom
• Two teachers for every classroom, a Gen Ed teacher and a Special Education teacher so we could fully include everyone in a class
• A functional safety shower for the science rooms
• Enough working media equipment to teach my TV Productions class
• Enough instruments so that I can let any kid be in band that shows interest
• A parent education center
• Consistent heat
• History textbooks that don’t refer to the Cold War as a current event
• Maybe less than 30 students in a classroom
• New lockers
• A confidential drop in service for counselors and psychologists whether mental health issues or struggling with school work/home life

This list makes me sad. We have needs that are daily impacting the health and well-being of our students and impeding their ability to be academically successful. Teachers are already asked to work miracles with limited supplies and overcrowded classrooms. We don’t need more responsibilities.

Dear politicians, please keep your guns and send us sustainable solutions…and tape. Lots of tape.