Broward teachers: We don’t want firearms
Two Broward County teachers and the president of the Broward Teachers Union visited the South Florida Sun Sentinel on Thursday to talk about proposals to put firearms into the hands of educators in an effort to protect schoolchildren.
As public and political debate swirls around the possibility of arming teachers, Broward County educators visited the South Florida Sun Sentinel on Thursday to voice their opposition to such a plan.
It is one much-debated suggestion that has arisen since a student gunman on Feb. 14 shot and killed 17 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.
Anna Fusco, president of the Broward Teachers Union, said she is thankful conversations are being had about making schools safer, but thinks firearms should remain in the hands of those trained to use them.
“We’re teachers, we want to have funding to have the best resources in our schools to bring the best education to our students,” Fusco said. “We don’t want to walk around with guns on us.”
Fusco and two other Broward County teachers met with Sun Sentinel Opinion Editor Rosemary O’Hara to explore the pros and cons of arming teachers and enhancing school safety.
Thursday’s meeting came one day after Marjory Stoneman Douglas students and teachers made an emotional return to their campus.
Fusco said she has been having daily conversations with teachers from the school.
“They’re scared, they’re emotional, they’re exhausted, they’re frustrated, they’re angry,” Fusco said. “Minute by minute they’re trying to keep it together for their students … they’ve all returned, and they’re all really, really trying. Some of them are really having a hard time with it.”
Joshua Jamieson, who teaches social science to seventh-graders at Silver Lakes Middle School in North Lauderdale, said arming teachers would be anathema to teaching students that violence is not a solution to the world’s problems.
“It demonstrates to them that there are times when firearms and violence are a solution and I don’t believe that is a message we should be sending our youth,” Jamieson said. “I believe that in a gunfight, the more bullets that are in the air, the more dangerous it is for our students, and I don’t want to be the one responsible for accidentally pulling the trigger that killed a kid.”
Fusco said she’s encountered only a few teachers who would be willing to carry a gun in the classroom.
“I’ve talked to thousands and I’ve not run across but one or two,” she said.
Rather than arming teachers, she said she would rather see money spent to reinforce school buildings with bulletproof windows and doors, to free up guidance counselors from testing duties and to hire more trained and armed school resource officers to guard campuses.
“Please do not try to arm teachers in our schools,” said Liliana Ruido, a kindergarten teacher at Sea Castle Elementary in Miramar. “Put the arms on those people who are trained mentally and physically. Teachers are not trained to carry guns, we are mentally trained to teach and care for our students.”
The student activism and the #NeverAgain movement that have taken hold since the shooting have inspired teachers and made them proud of their students, they said.
The time has come for one and all to “take a side or step aside,” Fusco said.
“Our Stoneman Douglas students have brought an empowerment of no other,” she said. “It’s an awakening that has been needed for so long. … Thank you, students, for what you have done and what you have started under this horrific tragedy.”
The next step, Fusco said, is for the school district and lawmakers in Tallahassee and Washington, D.C., to take the talks and task forces to the next level.
“Listen, deal with it, respond to it, be a part of it, every once in a while take off that political hat and put on your human hat and make the right decisions,” she said.