Is this School, or Pre-Prison?
Before I even get into it, so what can we do?
- Support and uplift young voices, especially when they are coming from a place of lived experiences.
- Divest from gun manufacturers and the NRA. Make them care in the only way that will get their attention. No one needs groups that are “little more than a corporate lobbyist[s] dressed up in woodsy camouflage.”
- Resist further militarization of police forces. Truly empathize with people who say FUCK THE POLICE. Demilitarize the police. Repeat.
- Build your local school community with the entire district in mind. Hold district officials accountable for state standards. Elect state officials who will be fierce educational forces in state and national government.
TW: ablism, gun violence, racism, state violence, mention of death
In social media and on the news, people have been asking to arm teachers and allow even more police presence on school grounds. As wild as the idea that killing big game for sport is viable for wildlife conservation, so too is the idea that children are safer in a statistically more dangerous environments. We do not need to perpetuate the present danger that exists in a nation with 13,000 gun deaths per year (96 per day) and a police force that incarcerates people at the highest rates in the world. Our learners deserve a systemic change that will further remove these dangers from their lives.
Arming Our Teachers
The current fascists occupying the White House have made recommendations to not only arm teachers, but to also provide financial incentives to educators who carry firearms to school. All allegedly presidential human garbage aside, what would this do? Knowing this isn’t a direct end-all solution to shootings, who will get shot first?
If disproportionate killings of black and brown people and disproportionate disciplining in schools are any indicators, it will be black, Native, brown, and special needs learners. A recent study by Columbia Law professor Kimberlé Crenshaw shows that black girls specifically are punished more quickly and more harshly than any student demographic. To no surprise, those in support of educators with guns and additional policing in mainstream media (and arguably across social media, as well) are white people. Largely, particularly those of the upper and upper-middle classes, these people view neither police nor white educators as threats to their children. Because of historical policing and educational practices, these views are not unfounded.
Parents of color — and possibly some white parents with children of color — are, on the other hand, aware that figures of authority (police, teachers, and school administrators) can represent very real dangers to their child's educational pursuit and general welfare. They know whose children are being disproportionately punished, and they know whose unarmed children are killed by state-sanctioned violence. Parents of color were, after all, once students of color, too. They likely remember the horrific events of white violence at the University of Texas (1966), Rose-Mar College of Beauty (1966), South Carolina State (1968), Kent State/Jackson State (1970), Cal State (1976), Cokeville Elementary (Cokeville, WY; 1986), and Cleveland Elementary (Stockton, CA; 1989).
An Armed Teacher is a Deadly and Dead Teacher
As we all know, disproportionate disciplining of students of color by teachers is violently real. In addition to academic evidence, we have seen videos of white teachers threatening students of color. We have heard white teachers call black students the N-word while telling them they are going to be shot. We have seen white ‘Behavioral Specialists’ body slamming a black child. Another teacher (who was punished the year before already) said, “Don’t make me get Donald Trump to send you home to Africa” to black students. Another teacher assaulted a student who sat for the pledge of allegiance. White children are not immune. A pre-K special needs child was kicked over. Even a Kindergartner was told he will be ‘ripped apart’.
Now imagine these scenarios with the hot-headed teachers armed.
Racist, abusive teachers are deadly for our learners, and everyone will know if teachers are allowed carry. With this as public knowledge, guess who will have an equal target on their cerebellum whether packing or not? Teachers. If you’re a school shooter and you think that your teacher might be packing, odds are you are going to take them out first; regardless of verification. Not only will this potentially leave a shooter more armed, but this also presents a very real danger to teachers who may not have a choice to teach in a Gun-Toting School. Overall, allowing teachers to carry will only escalate already real fears and endanger more educators and learners.
AmeriKKKan Police
Having more “School Resource Officers” (SROs) is far from a good solution. Through the horrific history of state-sanctioned violence in the United States, police have been at the front line of domestic oppression, particularly for people of color, people with disabilities, and poor people. More police in an overly policed country like ours is only a solution for people in power. SROs help fuel an already demonically successful school-to-prison pipeline. There is nothing about 21st century policing that will protect the most vulnerable in a system built by white supremacy.
See also: The school-to-prison pipeline, explained — Police officers in classrooms are just the tip of the iceberg
We’ve seen SROs handcuffing special needs children. We have seen them body slam little girls again, again, and again (watch CNN give victim-blaming voice to the police at the end of that third video, too). We have seen them grab and slam students by the throat. We have seen them tackle and pin the head of a 4'10", 70 lb. girl to the ground with a knee for using her cellphone. We have seen patterns of SROs (along with a principal) targeting black students, putting them in headlocks, and tazing them. Most recently, we saw an SRO and THREE other sheriff’s deputies hiding behind their cars during a horrific school shooting.
Bottom line is this: SROs and police are not there to protect your children. No matter what lines they feed you, the facts of their impact don’t lie (Go back and read the SEE ALSO article above if you don’t believe me.) They are there to feed the school-to-prison pipeline. They are there to feed the military-prison industrial complex. They are there to catch your kid ‘slipping up’, or force questionable charges on them such as “resisting arrest” when there are no grounds for arrest in the first place, or “obstructing governmental administration” when they don’t like something your kids says or does regardless of legality.
Additional Food for Thought: Ban the Men and White Boys
The hyperbolic nature of this sentiment is not unfounded:
“Recent studies reveal that most school shooters are White males, with 97% being male and 79% White. Over the last three decades, 90% of high school or elementary school shootings were the result of White, often upper-middle class, perpetrators. These shootings are a direct reflection of White male privilege and the consequences that occur when groups like the NRA control influential conservative leaders.”
Are you still down with racial profiling? Just let the local police, FBI, and NSA do their work if you think little Tommy is innocent, right? Let the police pat him down 6 days a week without warning or justification. Seems fair, no? Walking with that shoe on the other foot hurts, doesn’t it?
Men: stop being murderous, violent, and so damn entitled.
Who Will You Choose to Protect?
With all of that said, if you were one to vote in favor of these additional measures, who did you choose to protect?
If you choose militarization of schools, you choose to protect white, state-sanctioned violence and white supremacy. You choose to follow the desires of a racist, fascist like a lemming.
If you choose militarization of schools, you are opting for the death of black learners, Native learners, brown learners, special needs learners, and educators over the chance that little Tommy catches a stray bullet. You couldn’t bear the thought of tiny Tommy in a tiny casket, but you didn’t bat an eye when it was Tamir. You probably don’t see the relation between school shootings and police shootings even though you want to grow them even closer together through these measures. You’ll take the chance on black, Native, brown, and special needs learners having their already disproportionate disciplining and death (in school and out) escalated for what you perceive to be a safer environment for Tommy who fits the profile of school shooter much more so than any of the majority of victims in American society.
