Teacher shortage shows need to improve school safety | Daily Editorial | #schoolsaftey

Figures provided by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics tell the story. Nearly 50 percent of those exiting the profession in March were resignees.

The National Education Association, the nation’s largest teachers’ union, notes teacher burnout due to the pandemic shares much of the blame for the mass exodus. Safety, something once taken for granted that is now a giant question mark due to the increasing frequency of school shootings, was also cited as a major factor.

From all appearances, it is not going to get any better. In a survey conducted recently by the EdWeek Research Center and Merrimack College in Boston, one in three educators acknowledged that they are likely to change jobs within two years.

Just how bad is it? A recent news article quoted Becky Pringle, president of the NEA, who offered this perspective: “It’s like a five-alarm fire right now.”

Statistics gathered by the National Center for Education Statistics show there were 93 school shootings from 2020 to 2021 alone. Forty-three ended with fatalities and 50 with physical injuries. One of the nation’s leading newspapers reported recently that there have been 380 school shootings across the nation since the killing of 13 students — 15 counting the two perpetrators — in Columbine in April 1999.

Teachers responding to a survey more than five years ago indicated the shootings are cause for alarm. Sixty percent of the teachers participating in the 2018 survey by the NEA conceded they worry about it.

Public school systems across the country are doing what they can to improve school safety and security. It’s a huge task for sure. That’s even true in the Glynn County Public School System, despite the best efforts of a top-notch school police force. At least two students, the number the public is aware of, have been attacked by knife-wielding classmates in recent years at one of our public high schools.

In today’s world, school boards and school administrators must put as much emphasis in protecting the community’s sons and daughters as they do educating them.

It is difficult to teach in an environment when safety is a concern. It is just as difficult to learn in one.