I really appreciated Phillip J. Potenziano’s recent piece (“School districts can take action on school districts taking action in wake of Lewiston shootings,” Nov. 27). I applaud Superintendent Potenziano for writing it and I am grateful to the Press Herald for sharing it. I agree that the Say Something program, offered at no cost by the Sandy Hook Promise Organization, is an effective strategy for keeping schools safe from gun violence. I would like to offer additional ways for us to keep schools and communities safe.
As an educator here in Maine and a mother of school-aged children, keeping schools safe has become a priority and a passion project. I decided to become informed on gun violence in the U.S. when I moved back to Maine after living in Singapore, a country with two total gun deaths in 2019. I needed a plan to keep my children (and myself) safe from firearms if we were going to continue to live in this country.
Everytown for Gun Safety released a report in 2022, in conjunction with the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers, that outlined a plan for keeping students and educators safe. The report makes over 100 references and the research is clear on the effective ways to reduce gun violence in schools. Superintendent Potenziano outlined the importance of an anonymous reporting system and crisis-intervention program. There are additional steps a community can take, the most effective being sharing safe gun storage information.
More than 4.5 million children live in a home with a loaded and unlocked firearm. The U.S. Secret Service analyzed nearly 40 years of incidents and found roughly 75% of guns came from the home of a parent or close relative. Widely promoting safe gun storage could prevent easy access for children to bring firearms to school or unintentionally shooting themselves or others, which happens to 350 children each year in the U.S. Educating our school community on how to safely lock a firearm, separately from ammunition, is life-saving information that can keep our schools safe. Superintendents and principals can share this information directly with families, ideally annually. School board members can pass a resolution that requires this information to be shared each year. Parents and community members can encourage this kind of communication in their child’s school district.
Normalizing the conversation around firearms in the home can also be an effective strategy. Asking about secured firearms when your children visit another home is an important conversation to have with other parents. BeSmartForKids.org is a terrific resource for families and school districts who are committed to keeping schools safe for children and educators.
The Everytown for Gun Safety report offers many other effective steps that school communities can take such as implementing expert-endorsed security upgrades. This would include entry control measures to keep shooters out of schools and classroom interior door locks to deter active shooters.
It is recommended that schools implement an emergency plan in conjunction with local law enforcement and staff should be trained using this plan. However, the research indicates that student-involved active shooter drills are ineffective and traumatic for students and teachers.
One thing the report is very clear on: arming teachers actually makes schools more dangerous for everyone. The New York Police Department analyzed five decades of active school shooters and found that 75% were current or former students. Expecting us to use a firearm on a former or current student is the most obvious reason to avoid arming teachers, among other reasons.
It is my hope that, in light of the Lewiston shooting, administrators in Maine will heed Superintendent Potenziano’s sage advice to keep schools safe. Anonymous reporting and crisis-intervention programs are crucial. Sharing safe gun storage information consistently and often will also prove effective. Emergency planning and something as simple as locked doors will also go a long way in keeping our children and our educators safe from gun violence. Let’s not wait for another tragedy before we make small but effective changes.
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