I’ve spent, and continue to spend, a lot of time in schools. I attended Evanston schools throughout my entire childhood. I now frequently visit Evanston schools as a parent, as a PTA member and through my work at the Herald. 

I have a list of teachers who made a difference in my life, from kindergarten through grad school. I also have a list of educators who are impacting my kids’ lives, people I hold in the highest regard and that my kids simply adore. 

In all of my time spent in schools I have been able to participate in events that are educational, inspiring, emotional and just downright fun. 

I am frequently reminded how blessed we are to live in this community and have these people working with our kids every single day. 

Don’t get me wrong. There are times when I become frustrated as a parent, when I feel as though the district is making poor choices, or when I fervently wish more parents would take the time to get involved and help out. 

But, by and large, what has become abundantly clear to me, in particular over the past several months of covering school events, is how very much educators in this community really do care. 

I’ve seen it firsthand. 

I’ve witnessed the enthusiasm and emotion at assemblies and I’ve seen the pride worn on numerous faces — in every school in the district. 

I love kids and I love being invited to attend and write about activities involving kids. I often have so many photos from events that it’s really difficult to decide which ones to run; kids make for fantastic photographs. 

But I also feel that reporting on kids and our schools is some of the most important work I do, if not the most important. It’s a cliché to say children are our future, but sometimes clichés become such because they’re true. 

So I hope you’ll take me at my word when I say it pains me to have to write this particular column because I truly believe the district is on the verge of making a very large mistake.

I think we can all agree that the safety of our kids is paramount. I don’t think that’s really a topic for debate.

However, how we choose to go about trying to ensure that safety is a topic worthy of open and extensive debate.

The district is hosting a community forum on Tuesday, Jan. 30, to discuss the topic of teachers being authorized to carry concealed firearms on school property. I cannot stress vigorously enough how strongly I oppose this policy.

I’m not one to believe that the solution to the epidemic of gun violence we see in our country is more guns. The U.S. already has more guns per capita than any other nation on Earth and I don’t see that solving the problem. 

But, more importantly, I don’t think this policy exemplifies what UCSD No. 1 wants to be known for. 

I’ve covered numerous school board meetings and staff professional development events. One thing I’ve heard repeatedly is that the district is committed to data-based decision-making in efforts to improve. Indeed, it’s a key facet of the quest to become high-reliability schools. 

If this is indeed the case, then I would like for anyone on the school board, in administration or on staff with the district to produce the data that shows arming teachers is a good idea and would actually help in the event of a school shooting. I’ve been doing some research and I have yet to find any such data. 

What I have been able to find is a quote from John Moffatt, a retired principal from Montana who was actually involved in a school shooting, quoted in a March 2017 issue of Education Week. 

He said, “There was screaming. There was absolute pandemonium. If you throw into that mix a poorly trained teacher, or at least minimally trained, and all of that going on around you… The only thing that could have happened is that it could have made the shooting worse.”

I honestly don’t understand why the district is in such a hurry to implement this policy. Something of this magnitude should be done only after extensive dialogue with all stakeholders involved, including parents and students. To this point, it’s my understanding that only one student has been invited to committee meetings and none of the parents asked have been able to attend. 

The district has a responsibility to keep asking until parents are able to attend and to actively seek out input from students prior to even considering approving a policy. 

I have serious reservations about the amount of training time teachers would be required to participate in prior to being approved to concealed carry. I understand that cost of training is an issue; however, as a parent I will bluntly say that I really don’t care how much it costs. If you want permission to carry a lethal weapon around my child, on a daily basis, then you’d damn well better have more than 24 hours of initial training. 

I get it. We all want to protect our kids. And we seem to have this notion in our heads that a hero teacher would be able to get out a firearm in the midst of a chaotic scene with screaming children and save the day. I think we’ve all been watching way too much TV if we really believe that’s how it would work. I believe it’s far more likely that an innocent person, a child, would be hurt by a well-meaning staff member. 

From attending school board meetings, I know that security changes are in the works for Evanston schools in terms of design and limiting access. I applaud these efforts.

However, I also think we should be rigorously investigating other means to provide school security before jumping right to the most lethal means imaginable.  

Why in the world would we expect our teachers to be able to use deadly force in a crisis situation — a scenario in which nobody will really know how they’ll react until they’re in it?

Just because the Wyoming Legislature passed this bill doesn’t make it right. This is, after all, the same legislature that has been doing nothing but cutting the education budget for the last few years and that is frequently criticized by almost everyone I know for making bad decisions. Not exactly a glowing recommendation.

When I send my kids to school in Evanston I am trusting everyone in those schools to do what is right for my kids. It’s a solemn trust that I take seriously. If this policy is adopted and I have to wonder daily about whether my child’s teacher is carrying a gun, that trust will never be the same, plain and simple. 

Let’s leave carrying firearms to our trained and trusted law enforcement personnel, and let’s let our teachers do what they’re trained to do — teach.