Democrats and education advocates asked Education Secretary Betsy DeVos not to allow federal grants to be used for the purchase of guns. The Education Secretary turned them down, saying that when it comes to firearms in schools, she embraces a policy of “flexibility.”
“I have no intention of taking any action concerning the purchase of firearms or firearms training for school staff under the [Elementary and Secondary Education Act],” she wrote in a letter to Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA).
In her letter, she mentioned “substantial flexibility” in ESEA that allows school districts to decide how funds are used.
Two weeks ago, the New York Times reported that the Education Department was considering the idea of using $1 billion in Student Support and Academic Enrichment grants to purchase firearms and firearms training for schools.
Lori Alhadeff, newly-elected school board member and mother of a victim in the Parkland shooting, said she doesn’t want schools to arm teachers.
“Our teachers are qualified to teach our students. We need to give them more paper, pens, resources for their classrooms. But absolutely we should not be giving them a gun,” she told NPR this weekend.
This year’s mass shooting in Parkland, Florida, in which 17 people were killed by 19 year-old gunman Nikolas Cruz, sparked a national discussion about arming teachers in the classroom.
Since then, a growing number of school districts have debated whether the presence of firearms in the classroom would increase school security.
Lee County, Virginia — a rural school system which doesn’t have the budget for certain security measures, such as school resource officers — is seeking circuit court approval to allow school employees, including teachers, become “armed special conservators of the peace,” according to the Washington Post.
In the spring, the administration announced the creation of a school safety commission to study issues such as school security and the role of violent video games and entertainment on school shootings. Although the commission has said it will look at age limits for certain firearm purchases, gun restrictions is definitely not its focus.
When DeVos appeared before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies in May, Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-VT) asked DeVos whether the commission would look at the “role of firearms as it relates to gun violence in our schools.” She responded, “That is not part of the commission’s charge, per se,” she responded.
As ThinkProgress has explained in the past, it’s unlikely that arming teachers and other school staff would stop an active shooter and more guns would increase the chance of a deadly accident rather than reduce them.
When asked whether the commission has looked at other countries with far less school gun violence that may also have violent video games, DeVos responded that the commission was not examining that question. Many of the panels that are livestreamed on social media for the public focus on school security measures.
Alhadeff told NPR that she is focused on, among other measures, improving school security features, such as single-point entry. “School safety is going to be different from one school to the next but we can have certain standards — just like we do for fire safety.”
Another parent who lost a child during the Parkland shooting, Max Schachter, spoke in front of the commission on August 16, and advocated security features like those found at Southwestern High School in Indiana.
The high school has key fobs that teachers can use as panic buttons to notify law enforcement and has a surveillance system that is connected to local police, according to the Sun-Sentinel.
Schachter and other Parkland parents have sued store where Cruz bought his weapon, Sunrise Tactical Supply, and American Outdoor Brands, the gun manufacturer.
Not all Parkland survivors and parents of victims agree on what the best solutions are to mass shootings in schools. Black students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School for example have voiced concerns over whether increased security presence will mean increased racial profiling from officers.
And Kai Koerber, a junior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, said of the new clear backpacks students have to wear.
“It’s difficult, we all now have to learn how to deal with not only the loss of our friends, but now our right to privacy. My school was a place where everyone felt comfortable, it was a home away from home, and now that home has been destroyed.”