Editor’s note: This story originally published in September 2023, and was updated to reflect the latest shooting numbers.
With the rising number of school shootings and a lack of meaningful legislation to curb gun violence, schools and parents are attempting to take safety into their own hands.
Gun violence has changed day-to-day life in and out of the classroom, with more time and resources being funneled into preparing for worst-case scenarios.
While some school districts invest in additional safety measures, such as easy-to-exit emergency windows, some parents are adding bulletproof backpacks to their children’s back-to-school shopping lists. A panic button system implemented one week before the shooting at Apalachee High School notified Georgia law enforcement early.
This year, at least 32 shootings were reported on K-12 school grounds, according to a CNN data analysis as of September 4. There were at least 13 others on university and college campuses.
Hannah Lee, a high school English teacher in Irvine, California, who started her career during the Covid-19 pandemic, said she thinks frequently about how she would barricade her door or what she would do if a shooter broke through her door lock.
“I’m a young teacher and sometimes I wonder, is it going to be the best right now?” she said. “Will it just get worse and harder?”
Lee isn’t the only one questioning her future as a teacher. With school shootings on the rise and pandemic-disrupted learning taking a toll on teachers who feel increasingly burned out, public education is struggling to attract — and retain — qualified school staff, said Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association, the largest teachers’ union in the country.
Gun rights activists have long proposed arming teachers to combat school shootings. Most educators, however, say putting guns in teachers’ hands isn’t the answer. More than half of US teachers believe being armed would make schools less safe, according to a recent survey from the RAND Corporation.
“I’m already a babysitter, a mother, a mental health counselor,” said Takhtani. “I don’t want to be a police officer.”
