Target practice should not be part of the curriculum

As part of my preparation to become a Florida classroom teacher, I studied my subject area — music — backward and forward. I learned best practices for classroom management and tools for writing and grading assignments along with other pedagogical pursuits.

Target practice? Not part of my curriculum.

That could change. Allowing teachers to carry guns in Florida’s schools is one recommendation from the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission, formed in the wake of last year’s tragic school shooting in Parkland.

This is a terrible idea. Teachers want to teach. We don’t want to pretend to be law enforcement professionals. We don’t have — and can’t easily get — the extensive training and field experience needed to handle lethal firearms during an active shooter event.

Most Florida educators would agree with veteran teacher Debbie Hixon, who is the widow of Chris Hixon, the Stoneman Douglas athletic director murdered while trying to protect students. “It’s a burden teachers shouldn't have to carry,” she said of guns in classrooms. “It just opens the door for so many things that could go wrong."

It should be noted that not one of the 16 members of the Stoneman Douglas Commission is a teacher. Not one. That’s no knock against commission members. I appreciate the dedicated and diligent work of the bereaved parents, law enforcement professionals, school administrators and mental health service providers seeking ways to keep our schools safe.

But what were Florida’s elected leaders thinking when they failed to include the perspective of even a single teacher in this vital conversation? We think constantly about the safety and well-being of our students. A teacher would have asked: “If you give me a gun at school, what am I supposed to do with it all day?”

If you lock the gun away, it probably won’t be much use during a crisis. If you don’t lock it away — in a roomful of students — that’s a disaster waiting to happen. You’re probably more likely to cause a crisis than prevent one.

What happens if there is a school shooting, a teacher pulls out a weapon, and then the police arrive? Unlike law enforcement, teachers don’t wear uniforms. In the chaotic environment of an active shooter scenario, how will the police distinguish a “good guy with a gun” from a “bad guy with a gun”?

To be fair, arming teachers is a bad idea contained in a 458-page report that also includes some good ideas. For example, educators support better school design and security in our buildings and classrooms, and better communications between teachers, mental health professionals and law enforcement.

Better communication won’t be much use, however, if you don’t have someone with whom to communicate. Florida schools are far behind when it comes to providing enough school psychologists and counselors to meet the mental health needs of our students. Even after the Parkland tragedy, our legislators failed to provide adequate resources. As the Sun

Sentinel stated in a recent editorial, a

$400 million school safety package passed a month after the shootings — including some funds for mental health — “rashly raided trust funds and regular school accounts.”

The cupboard legislators ransacked was already quite bare. Florida ranks 44th nationally when it comes to education spending. Instead of seriously tackling our funding shortfall, lawmakers added a mere 47 cents per pupil to our base student allocation for the 2018-2019 school year.

While we were frustrated with the results of the 2018 legislative session, Florida’s educators know that school safety is not a partisan issue.

Our aim should be to build a common vision of Florida schools as nurturing places where students can learn, grow and develop, surrounded by loving communities. Let’s not start by adding guns to teachers’ classroom supply lists. And let’s not skimp on the investments we need to create hope and opportunity for every Florida family.

Fedrick Ingram is the president of the Florida Education Association, representing teachers, higher education faculty and school employees across the state. He is a music teacher, a school bandleader and a former Miami-Dade Teacher of the Year. Before moving to Tallahassee three years ago, Ingram was a Broward County resident whose children attended the county’s public schools.