Want to know the truth about preventing mass shootings in schools?

It can’t be done.

Not as long as we continue to live in a gun-hungry culture.  One-hundred percent prevention of mass shootings in schools is not possible, nor is it realistic, especially by violent means.

Problems with suggestions for preventing school shootings:

It’s been quite the year for gun violence, and instead of putting a stop to our obsession with guns, it seems as though I see more and more of that obsession littering social media and news outlets every day.

Don’t get me wrong. I grew up with guns in the home and have a healthy respect for them. I even believe in people’s rights to own and carry them. But I’m not opposed to sitting down and having an adult conversation as a nation — and even as a global community — about what we can do to regulate their availability to those who should not have them.

Everyone and their uncle seems to have a solution for putting a stop to gun violence, but the one that baffles me the most is the insinuation that we should fight violence with MORE violence, particularly as it applies to school shootings and how schools should handle protecting students. I am so sick of the general public insinuating that if schools would just do X, Y, or Z, tragedies like the ones at Sandy Hook, Columbine, and most recently in South Carolina could be averted.  Even worse are the suggestions the general public has for curbing instances of school-wide mass murder.

Let’s arm teachers, they say.

Let’s place armed guards in each building, they continue.

Let’s lock the buildings up like prisons, they demand.

Let’s run schools like police states, they imply.

Let’s use a community’s terrible loss to throw tantrums over whether or not we should get to purchase assault rifles and hoard firearms under the constitution, they selfishly suggest.

None of these measures will prevent school shootings.  Not one.

The problem with arming teachers:

Think arming teachers is the answer?  Fine.  Who’s going to pay for the training?  The weapons?  We can’t even get the public to agree on basic funding for school staff and supplies.  As a teacher, I guarantee if you add “shooting killers dead” to my job description, you’re going to have to add a helluva lot more compensation to my already waning salary and benefits.  Furthermore, when’s this training supposed to take place?  Between the after-school student council meeting and parent/teacher conferences?

What about teachers uncomfortable with carrying or shooting?  They’re educators, not police officers.

What about the harried and already overworked teachers who can’t manage to keep track of their classroom keys all day?  You want them to keep track of firearms?

And what about the fact that teachers are surrounded by anywhere between 30 and 150 students in a single day?  They may have eyes in the backs of their heads, but they can’t make sure one kid doesn’t distract them while another takes the weapon.  There’s a very real possibility that a firearm intended for self defense could become the weapon that takes down an entire classroom full of students.

The problem with stationing armed guards or police officers in schools:

Armed guards may not be as effective as many people believe.  Columbine High School employed an armed guard who was present when the 1999 shooters opened fire.  The shooters still killed 15 people and wounded nearly two dozen more.

Furthermore, many districts already have liason officers stationed in their schools.  How is adding one in every other school going to prevent gun violence if the ones we already have aren’t effective?  And who’s going to pay for them?  Guards aren’t free, after all.

Perhaps most concerning are recent research findings suggesting that the presence of armed guards in schools increases students’ sense of fear.  Instead of feeling better protected, they feel apprehensive, something that undoubtedly interferes with their learning and psychological well-being.

The problem with running schools on constant lock down:

Many schools already operate with all but main entrance doors locked once school is in session.  Some argue there is a need to lock all doors and only grant access to individuals who show proper identification.

OK.  So who’s going to man the door?  That person (or people) won’t work for free.  And what about late comers and students whose parents must pick them up because of illnesses or appointments?  At any given moment, there are a dozen or more students coming or going, and that’s on a slow day.  Don’t forget cafeteria workers, delivery people, mail carriers, part-time employees, guest speakers, and student teachers, to name just a few comers and goers.  Imagine how clogged that one checkpoint will get and the adverse effect that will have on teaching, learning, and the everyday processes required to run a well-oiled machine like a single public high school.

And all this delay in operation for what?  An intruder hell bent on entering and shooting up a school will do just that.  Locked doors and security checkpoints won’t act as deterrents.  They certainly didn’t for the Sandy Hook shooter who apparently forced his way into the locked school.

The reality:

The reality is, schools are public buildings just like grocery stores, banks, gas stations, and malls.  The public comes and goes.  No amount of weaponry or lock down can provide 100% prevention against someone entering these public domains and harming the people in them. Guns and guards could lessen the number of victims, but they could also just as easily do more harm than good.

School districts and officials could instead benefit from further training in keeping as many people safe as possible in the event of gun violence.  They could also benefit from better access to mental health resources for students and families.

But to insist they might benefit from countering violence with violence?  This is not only naive, but it is also highly irresponsible, and frankly, as someone who works in a school, has an intimate knowledge of school safety procedures, and does her best to provide a safe learning environment for her students each day, I’m damn tired of it.

What we should really be doing is reevaluating our priorities as a nation and brainstorming solutions on which both responsible gun owners and those in favor of gun control can compromise. Aren’t our children — and isn’t our nation as a whole — deserving of that?