Summary: Today at 11:15 a.m., Social Studies teacher in Dalton, Georgia fired shots at Dalton High School, and was soon arrested. Jesse Randall Davidson shot multiple shots, and the Dalton Police Department responded immediately letting parents know to pick up their students at the Northeast Georgia Trade Center where the students were transported. The Dalton Police Department notified the public through twitter sending out multiple updates about the shooting. Although no one was hurt this morning, this could have been a major affair in America especially after the Florida shooting not being that long ago.
Questions:
1. How do you think Trump will respond to this incident?
2. Do you think teachers should be armed at school?
Link: http://wgno.com/2018/02/28/armed-teacher-arrested-after-shooting-at-georgia-high-school/
8 comments:
I don't know how or if Trump will respond to this issue, but I don't think that teachers should be armed at school. If people are trying to lower the number of school shootings, the best way to do so is not to bring more guns into the school. Schools should be a safe area, where kids only have to focus on their learning, and the potential for danger only increases when more people are armed. A Washington Post article said that arming teachers would pose potential problems for black and Latino students, in particular. It states that "putting guns into the hands of schoolteachers would be extraordinarily dangerous for black and Latino students, who are already often forced to try to learn in hostile environments where they’re treated as threats." In situations that are already fraught with misunderstanding and stereotypes, arming teachers only increases the chances for people to act on their racist views.
If Trump responds to this incident I don't think he will have much to say because this is another example of how dangerous it is to have guns at a school. Since no one is hurt I don't think it is likely that he will respond. I definitely do not think that teachers should be armed. I feel that this would hurt the environment of a school which is supposed to be only about education. More guns at schools will only cause more harm. Natalie talked about how armed teachers could pose a threat to black and Latino students. In our relatively safe school district I couldn't see a teacher pulling a gun on a student but in the many more hostile areas in our country it could be incredibly dangerous.
I think it's very unlikely that Trump will address the incident, especially because it goes against his proposal of arming teachers. I agree with Brooke and Nataly completely. This just goes to show why we should not arm teachers. Additionally, I don't think the best solution to decreasing school shootings is to increase the number of guns available in the schools. It just gives potentially dangerous students another way to obtain guns. Arming teachers is also a burden on the teachers as it requires much more training and licensing, which will cost a lot. Overall, arming teachers sounds like a terrible idea.
Knowing Trump, he is probably going to either ignore this issue or make it sound like it wasn't that big of a deal. I think that this is a great example, however, to show Trump that his plan for having armed teachers is going to be very ineffective. Like in this example, having guns in the teacher's hands raises the potential of the classroom becoming a hostile learning environment because the teacher now has more power. This could very possibly scare students from being true to themselves, or asking controversial questions that could spur healthy debate. Another thing is that having a gun in the classroom also allows students an access to a gun. If a student is ever feeling bad and decides that they are ready to hurt someone, or if an argument breaks out in a class, having a gun at their immediate disposal is not safe at all.
Trump will probably attack this incident and claim it is some sort of liberal scheme to stop the arming of teachers. No children were hurt, and it is likely that this was an attempted suicide, not the start of a mass shooting. Because of all of the recent events, people are quick to jump on the claims "mass shooter" and "terrorist," when it is probably an issue revolving around mental health. Had he been reached out to, an incident like this would not have happened. An accessible mental health care program would significantly reduce incidents like this. And now his life is likely ruined due to the media plastering his name and face everywhere, criminalizing him.
Arming teacher would be ridiculous. Suppose a teacher by some miracle successfully takes down an armed shooter. The police arrive and see the teacher with a recently unloaded gun. What would happen next?
I disagree with the point that Natalie made in the first comment. I don't think a teacher is going to shoot someone out of racism. Also, there is no need to be scared of the teacher having a gun unless you are going to do something drastically dangerous. Most of the people in this comments section seem to think that the teachers are going to have the gun in their hand, loaded, and with the safety off the entire time they are teaching. Teachers won't be able to just pull out the gun if they are mad at a student. Not only is that illegal and the cops could get involved, but the guns would be held in a secure gun safe that is most likely hidden and not able to be opened instantaneously.
I'm going to have to disagree with Mathew. As a person of color, I would definitely be afraid of being near teachers who have a gun on them. Maybe not in their pocket, but the fact that a gun would be in the same room would still make me afraid to be in that room. I think it's very important that we don't become blind to racism here. Also, why shouldn't we be scared of a teacher having a gun? It does not matter if we do something provocative or not. No one did anything to provoke Nicholas Cruz, but there were still 17 killed. We can't really predict the actions of people, just like this teacher. People of color always have to be extra careful in the world because anything we do can be taken in the wrong way.
Right now a popular conservative stance with regards to gun laws is to permit/require teachers to keep guns in their classrooms, as the "only thing that can stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun." This incident certainly strengthens the argument of those who disagree. It is ridiculously easy for a teacher to abuse the power of having a gun in a classroom, leaving students completely helpless in a classroom that is intended to be a safe area. This particular teacher was reported to have been on depression medication and to have had a prior record of mental illness, and the fact that he was even allowed to own a gun in the first place seems off to me. All it takes is a mood swing or some random act of destructiveness for an armed teacher to kill dozens of students and faculty at a school. The fact of the matter is that we need tighter gun restrictions.
Post a Comment