Cambridge Teachers Voice Opposition to Being Armed
Officer Floyd is the only official in the school to carry an armed weapon.
The recent Parkland shooting in Florida has reignited the national conversation about how school shootings can be prevented.
As a result, people around the nation have been discussing ideas on how this can be achieved.
A solution that has been proposed by many is arming at least a select group of school teachers with firearms.
This proposal has created a national debate on whether arming teachers would be effective in making school campuses a safer environment for students and staff.
According to a recent CBS News poll, 44 percent of Americans are in favor of teachers carrying firearms, while 50 percent oppose the proposal.
People across America have strong opinions on how arming themselves would work out in the long run, and Cambridge’s teachers are no exception.
Math teacher Lori DeLorenzo said she feels it would increase the severity of the situation, not help it.
“I believe arming teachers in schools would end up making the situation worse, and that having guns and weapons on campuses would make school shootings more likely,” said DeLorenzo.
Spanish teacher Jose Franco said he feels it could work if a school shooting were to arise, but he doesn’t feel it’s the ultimate solution to the problem.
“Common sense tells me that being armed would help, but when I stop thinking about that scenario, I think of many other scenarios where this could cause problems inside a school building,” said Franco.
Another reason why some Cambridge teachers do not support the proposal is that their comfort level wouldn’t be the same, knowing that they and their colleagues are armed.
“I would not feel comfortable being armed or knowing that my colleagues are armed,” said Science teacher Amber Miller. “We are educators, not militia.”
Some teachers, such as Miller, have their own ideas on how to improve school safety.
Miller believes that integrating more safety measures and tools, such as campus police and alarmed doors, would be beneficial to the school’s safety.
She also believes that better services for students, such as counseling for troubled kids and a better system for vetting people coming into the building, would result in a safer school campus.
When it all comes down to this issue of school safety, teachers just want what’s best for themselves and their students.
“I just hope all these problems can be sorted out and our students can be and feel safe at school,” said Delorenzo.
