The School of Education at Gannon University is home to the next generation of teachers who are in the processes of doing field placements.
The field placement I am currently working on involves the student observing a teacher to learn what kind of work it takes. Teachers are important and are the ones who are going to be educating the next generation of politicians, astronauts, actors, construction workers, doctors and lawyers.
With the start of my placement I can’t shake a certain feeling, a feeling that is emphasized by the current news reels on television.
The problem that I am addressing is the frequent times that I will turn on the television or open a news source on my laptop and see another school shooting.
As a teacher in training, my first thought of the day should not be: What would happen if a student brought a gun on campus? It should be: What are the lesson plans for the day?
I’m not saying that this is happening in every school in America, but it is happening too often.
This puts a cloud of concern over teachers’ heads that shouldn’t be there. Teachers are in schools to teach students and to give them an education, but not be police officers or bodyguards.
In the U.S. alone last year, according to ABC, a total of 65 shootings were reported on school campuses.
With 12 months in the year, that would be approximately five shootings a month. But students and teachers aren’t even in school for all 12 months of the year. Most schools are in session for an average of eight months a year, which would make the new number approximately eight shootings a month.
On top of that, according to ABC, the U.S. saw 346 mass shootings last year. There are only 365 days in a year, and in one year the U.S. has a shooting nearly every day.
This is the big question that has been debated by high school students, college students, teachers, professors and politicians from both parties.
But still we have nothing fixed and teachers and students still go to school with the thought that something could happen. I remember when I was in elementary school in Canada, the only drills that we would have were fire and earthquake drills
When I moved to the U.S. for high school, we started doing fire and earthquake drills as usual, but something was added — lockdown drills. I honestly don’t remember doing lockdown drills even for my first year of high school in Canada.
Of course things have probably changed in Canada since then, but it was something that I was not aware of. School is not somewhere that I should be scared to go. But now that I am older and I know the severity of situations such as these, it scares me.
But as a move forward in my journey to become a teacher, I want to have open conversations with my students about things like this that go on. So hopefully I can also educate the next generation and this cycle of violence could come to an end.
AMY BENKOVICH
