No, it is not necessary for teachers to be armed as a teacher's main priority is to educate students and provide high-quality education. Teachers definitely have a responsibility to ensure that the classroom environment is conducive to effective learning and safe for all. However, it should not only be the teacher's sole responsibility to protect students as that adds another layer of pressure on teachers who are already experiencing stress from being either underpaid, overworked, or both. Teachers should be able to teach in a safe environment without having to worry about their safety in the first place.
Hence, it should be mandated that all schools, especially public schools located in areas where crime rates are high, invest in defensive mechanisms that protect schools. The Ministry of Education/Department of Defense should give all public schools in the country a certain amount of funding that allows them to invest in these defensive mechanisms. Such defensive mechanisms can include armed trained security professionals at every major entrance/exit point of the school and student space (E.g cafeteria, hallway). Any area that is located within a 10-20km radius of a school should also be supervised by security with CCTV cameras.
Just like going into a public facility such as a bank, hospital, airport, or shopping mall, mandatory screenings should be done by security professionals at the beginning and end of every school day. This is to ensure no one is bringing an armed weapon, or potentially harmful item in and out of the school. For potential items that can be used to cause violence such as scissors or knives, students can be given a token to collect them at the end of the school day from security when they go back home. For any student who attempts to avoid the bag screening, certain disciplinary action will be taken. If there is a need for teachers to have scissors in class, they will be provided and must be returned to the teacher.
In addition, certain safety features can be added to classrooms such as bulletproof doors/windows/walls, and protective gear for students, teachers, and staff to use in cases of emergency. Lockers, washrooms, and changing rooms should also be equipped with some kind of safety feature.
I understand that these measures can be considered extreme and costly given there are many public schools in the country. It could also be that when teachers are equipped with an armed weapon, they would feel a greater sense of security and ability to protect their students.
To address the first issue of implementing such measures being costly, it is actually not an issue of not having enough money to fund such measures. It is the government's or educational board's flawed untransparent, management of handling funds that is the massive problem and deserves to be discussed in a different forum. But anyway, with an effective, transparent financial management system that is able to regulate the flow of money into private and public schools, it is feasible to implement such measures.
To address the second issue of teachers feeling secure with an armed weapon, teachers at the end of the day are human and humans can make bad decisions, be it consciously, unconsciously, or in between. There is a possibility that teachers could be so focused on teaching and carrying out their respective duties that they may forgetfully misplace their weapons, which could be taken advantage of by bad-faith actors. There may also be bad-faith actors disguised as teachers who could also take advantage of being armed as well. Furthermore, in the case that a teacher does end up killing a bad actor in a violent confrontation, there would be complicated judicial proceedings that would cost significant amounts of money and cause unintended consequences for the teacher involved; such as consequences related to that teacher's health, or teaching career. While being armed reduces the chances of a teacher not getting killed, doing that alone does not guarantee the safety and life of the teacher being involved or the students of the school. The same could somewhat be said for the protective measures I mentioned above, but at least it reduces the need to use violence as a defense mechanism and the possibility of casualties.
In conclusion, it would be wise to invest in protective measures and professionally trained security guards instead of relying on armed teachers to risk their lives for their students, when they have several responsibilities to carry out which already include ensuring caring for the emotional, and physical welfare of students and their academic performance.
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