Sahuaro Teachers – Thoughts On School Shootings

Sahuaro Teachers - Thoughts On School Shootings

Jasmine Varelas, Co Editor of A&E and Opinion

After the shooting in Florida, teachers everywhere are concerned about their safety and the safety of their students.

The day after the shooting, EVERY one of my teachers were talking to us about their opinions on the safety and the lack of safety that Sahuaro has. My math teacher told us that he is no longer going to leave his door unlocked, and then proceeded to tell us how the windows on the door has a mesh inside of them.  He seemed to want to re-assure us that he will try his hardest to keep us safe.

Some teachers believe that they should be able to be armed with weapons just in case, but some are highly against this. One thing that everyone can agree on is that we, as a nation, a state, and a school, need to take safety precautions.

English teacher Ms. Krause believes that the school needs to get cameras for the hallways, we need to lock our doors, students need to start wearing their student ID’s, and TUSD needs to come up with a new plan and policy for protecting it’s faculty and students.  “This is a nation-wide issue, we can’t pretend it’s not going to happen here,” Ms. Krause stated when I asked her about her opinion on the matter.

I also asked my psychology teacher Ms. Mooney and P.E teacher/girls soccer coach Mr. Kruszewski about their thoughts and they both agreed that the school needs to beef up the security around the school. Ms. Mooney thinks that we should replace the doors with one with smaller windows. She and Mr. Kruszewski also both think that teachers should not be armed and that we should have a professionally trained cop or retired military on campus. Ms. Mooney says that she can’t imagine any teacher or monitor to have a gun or any one of them to be able to gun down a student, saying that she “can’t see a teacher being comfortable with shooting a student, they won’t be emotionally able to.” Both teachers and monitors form bonds with the students and won’t have the strength to end a student’s life. After all, that’s a huge decision that most people wouldn’t be able to make.

As a student I just want you teachers to know that we students appreciate everything that you do and I am so sorry because this isn’t what you signed up for. You took this job to educate us, teach us to think and be creative, but instead you now have to constantly worry that strangers, or even a student, is going to interrupt your lectures with bullets or other forms of violence.

If you are a teacher and you are reading this, I appreciate if you would click here to ease your mind and understand how grateful us students are to have you.

Source: tolerance.org , nytimes.com