By Michael Cummings

Opinion

This is an open letter all politicians, school board members, principles, teachers, and parents.

It seems like every week we’re hearing news of some sort of school shooting. Parkland, Santa Fe, and

shooting outside my own school at IDEA Public Charter School are all travesties.  Realistically, Parkland could have been avoided.  Because of the high caseloads put on teachers and support staff, students have fallen through the cracks. Please take a moment of silence in remembrance of the lives lost.

What Can I do to Protect my Students?

The decision to pull the trigger on a human being that is unable to defend themselves for whatever reason is immoral. As a result, many schools have put in place elaborate systems for security.  What happens when a school shooter is trapped inside with  20 or so students? What can we do to stop this?

By we, I mean teachers that are willing to go through whatever hoops needed to protect students. If there is a fight who was the first person to break it up? It sure is not our student body as they are on their phones and recording the shenanigans. We are the first line of defense inside of the school. In many circumstances, administration and teachers are the only lines of initial defense.

As a constitutional advocate an amateur historian, we don’t have to look far into our past to understand why our founding fathers wrote in the Second Amendment. Many will argue it is to prevent tyranny. Many will argue it is for an avocation of the self-defense Arts. Whether they are right or wrong is part of the debate. I will argue that both sides have merit.

Reasons for my Madness.

To date, two separate set incidence of intruders have happened in my school. These events are of major concern, because of circumstances around it. One particular event which I’m going to focus on was about getting even with me. I called a student out for wanting to be treated like a man yet acting like a little child. He got mad at me and a week later he called up his buddies and let them in a side door. These people or more than likely armed as this student had known gang connections.

How do I defend against this? Police officers are minutes away. School security does their best, but they don’t have adequate resources. We have one metropolitan DC police officer assigned to multiple schools. Their presence is limited.  It is literally me vs. the world.

The real way to defend against people who want to kill you is to be able to produce a firearm. There is a high likelihood that I would have needed a weapon in dealing with this student and his friends. There’s an even higher likelihood they had a weapon themselves. These fights are not about being equal. They’re about surviving.  Would I have needed to even reveal I had one?   Only if they displayed intent to do harm.

Let’s look at a second situation that happened at my school last week. One of my students was shot outside the school building. The circumstances of the shooting are being kept under wraps, but I have my suspicions of the reason it happened.  Regardless, this is the ONE situation where I would have drawn.  A life was directly in danger.

School Based Resolution

With the student being shot outside, who was able to defend them? If I was able to carry a pistol, I would have. Other teachers who I know are confident and their skills would have as well. With these events coming so close to home, many questions remain. Why am I still there? Why don’t I break the law and carry a gun?

The answers to those questions are very simple. I am there to serve my students and not abandon them. I am also not willing to put my teaching credentials and license on the line, as carrying a gun in DC is a felony.  In two separate cases, I put my life on the line to walk in and do my job.

Let us do our jobs and still be able to protect our students. Assault rocks and cans can only go so far. Glass doors only do so much to stop a school intruder. The only way that I can defend my student adequately is to have an advantage. That advantage is my skills in handling and using a firearm as a tool.  I am willing to do whatever it takes to keep my students safe.