(Trends Wide) — More than half of US teachers believe that arming themselves would make students less safe, while one in five say they would be interested in bringing a gun to school, according to a new report from the RAND Corporation.
The survey, which was conducted in October and November 2022, revealed that 54% of teachers believe that carrying firearms would make schools less safe, 20% believe that carry gun programs for teachers would make make schools safer and 26% believe it would not make schools any more or less safe.
The report focused on the views of elementary and secondary school teachers about safety in their schools, with responses varying based on the race and ethnicity of teachers and students.
According to the survey results, white teachers believe that carrying firearms would make schools safer to a greater extent than their black colleagues, and male teachers in rural schools say they would personally carry a firearm into their school if it were found. would allow them
The survey estimates that 550,000 of the 3 million elementary and secondary school teachers in the United States would choose to carry a firearm to school if allowed.
The debate on the advisability of arming the country’s teachers is not new and is often revived after shootings in schools. However, instead of shootings, bullying is the safety issue that half of the teachers are most concerned about, according to the report.
After bullying, drug use is what most worries high school teachers, as well as fights between students, according to the report. Secondary school teachers rank self-harm as one of their top concerns, and primary school teachers are more concerned about violence against teachers, according to the data.
Approximately half of the teachers surveyed considered that the physical security measures in their centers, such as locks, badges, cameras and security personnel, positively affected the school climate, according to the report, and only 5% of the teachers considered that these security measures had a negative effect.
In another fall 2022 survey, 70% of school district leaders said they had increased their investments in school safety measures in response to the May 2022 shooting at a Uvalde, Texas school.
According to the survey, teachers were more concerned about the safety of their students than their own.
After analyzing the survey results, the researchers pointed to some areas ripe for further investigation, such as studying which schools or districts have adopted teacher carry gun programs to:
– Observe how they work in practice
– Develop approaches to school safety planning that can balance low-level and frequent forms of school violence, such as bullying, with less likely and extreme forms of school violence, such as shootings;
– And conduct a comprehensive cost-benefit analysis of programs that allow teachers to carry guns to see what the total monetary cost would be to schools and states.
(Trends Wide) — More than half of US teachers believe that arming themselves would make students less safe, while one in five say they would be interested in bringing a gun to school, according to a new report from the RAND Corporation.
The survey, which was conducted in October and November 2022, revealed that 54% of teachers believe that carrying firearms would make schools less safe, 20% believe that carry gun programs for teachers would make make schools safer and 26% believe it would not make schools any more or less safe.
The report focused on the views of elementary and secondary school teachers about safety in their schools, with responses varying based on the race and ethnicity of teachers and students.
According to the survey results, white teachers believe that carrying firearms would make schools safer to a greater extent than their black colleagues, and male teachers in rural schools say they would personally carry a firearm into their school if it were found. would allow them
The survey estimates that 550,000 of the 3 million elementary and secondary school teachers in the United States would choose to carry a firearm to school if allowed.
The debate on the advisability of arming the country’s teachers is not new and is often revived after shootings in schools. However, instead of shootings, bullying is the safety issue that half of the teachers are most concerned about, according to the report.
After bullying, drug use is what most worries high school teachers, as well as fights between students, according to the report. Secondary school teachers rank self-harm as one of their top concerns, and primary school teachers are more concerned about violence against teachers, according to the data.
Approximately half of the teachers surveyed considered that the physical security measures in their centers, such as locks, badges, cameras and security personnel, positively affected the school climate, according to the report, and only 5% of the teachers considered that these security measures had a negative effect.
In another fall 2022 survey, 70% of school district leaders said they had increased their investments in school safety measures in response to the May 2022 shooting at a Uvalde, Texas school.
According to the survey, teachers were more concerned about the safety of their students than their own.
After analyzing the survey results, the researchers pointed to some areas ripe for further investigation, such as studying which schools or districts have adopted teacher carry gun programs to:
– Observe how they work in practice
– Develop approaches to school safety planning that can balance low-level and frequent forms of school violence, such as bullying, with less likely and extreme forms of school violence, such as shootings;
– And conduct a comprehensive cost-benefit analysis of programs that allow teachers to carry guns to see what the total monetary cost would be to schools and states.
