Unfair Park from p4 Gun Sense, a nonprofit that has long advo- cated unsuccessfully for measures such as background checks on every gun sale, re- quiring safe storage for guns and red flag laws that would allow law enforcement to take guns away from those deemed a poten- tial threat. The group’s executive director, Nicole Golden, said even when they bring data, sto- ries of gun violence survivors and even sup- port from law enforcement, the political will for moving forward with “common sense” gun laws just doesn’t exist in Texas. “The wrong direction has been taken,” she said. “[It] speaks to the decisions made by top leadership at the state level, and … I think people are really feeling that anger right now.” Honea also believes politicians can do more to protect teachers. She wants universal background checks for purchasers, a higher age limit to pur- chase guns, the removal of assault weapons from the market except for military person- nel and better education about the Second Amendment. “While I’m not opposed to people’s choice to own a gun, Texas no longer has a militia, so the right of the people ‘to keep and bear arms’ is taken out of context,” Ho- nea said. “Parents should become informed voters and exercise their right to elect those that are willing to stand up for what is right and not just vote in the name of a party as well as against their own interests.” One idea resurrected by gun rights advo- cates — arming teachers in the classrooms — is outright rejected by many educators. “Absolutely not! Teachers wear many hats in addition to educating students, but asking them now to be security and police officers is unacceptable!” Honea wrote. “Mistakes, as we’ve seen, are made by well- trained officers for situations like this. If an educator is focused on the shooter, who is focused on his/her students? Some students are not beyond trying to ‘take’ a gun from an employee they know is armed and then an- other tragedy could occur.” Walsh wonders where the funding for something like that would come from and how teachers would be trained. “They don’t trust us to put books that they would deem appropriate into our class- rooms, but yet they want to hand us a gun,” Walsh said. “Number one, they have no place in a classroom. That’s a classroom full of children.” Walsh said she already has to pay for ev- erything she puts up on the walls for her classroom. In some years, she got a hundred or so dollars, some years she got nothing. “Y’all can’t even give us the supplies that we need, but you want to put a gun in my hands,” she said. “Also, what kind of training would be provided? All while teachers would most likely be expected to do that on their own time as well, much like we’re ex- pected to do everything else on our own time.” Golden said more guns in the classroom won’t make anyone safer. “I think we really need to think carefully 66 about that before we rush to that as the an- swer,” Golden said. “To put that forward in Alex Wong/Getty Images place of sensible gun laws … is a real mistake, and I don’t think it’s acceptable to the public right now.” But mass shootings do happen and proto- cols exist for when there is an active shooter in a school. Dallas ISD’s lockdown protocol calls for students to follow staff directions, which could include moving out of sight, staying si- lent, locking classroom doors, turning lights off, and waiting for first responders. These same protocols, or ones very simi- lar, are used all over the U.S. and have been for decades. Most students who have gone through a U.S. school system would be aware of these general guidelines. “I just think if someone’s going to come in, what do we do? What do we do?” said Walsh. “We have these drills and we have this training, but like, what do we actually do? Because the training and the drills doesn’t seem like it would work.” Part of her district’s protocol was to line up against the wall where the door is to stay out of sight, but the Uvalde shooter had weapons with rounds that could easily pierce wallboard and wooden doors. “A lot of these people that are shooting these schools have grown up with a lot of these drills, they know exactly what we do,” Walsh said. “They know that we lock the doors and we hide, but that’s not a foolproof system in itself.” As a special education teacher, Walsh faces additional problems with complying with the protocols. “How am I expected to keep my autistic kids silent?” she asked. “It’s a disability rights issue too.” Questions about the nature and value of school shooting protocols is something Ho- nea has heard from other teachers. “When events occur like school shoot- ings, some begin to question if they can con- tinue in the profession knowing that they may have to put their lives on the line for their students to protect them, especially for those that have children of their own at home,” Honea said. There are some measures Honea believes would help increase security and protect teachers and students, such as working locks on doors leading outside, working cameras that are monitored at all entrances and security officers, either uniformed or plain-clothed, at the entrances. But these measures would require fund- ing and a change in priorities. “Restricting the ability to purchase as- sault weapons would be one of the best ways to protect everyone from mass shootings,” Honea said. “We must vote for people will- ing to truly put safety first and not politics.” Texas Gun Sense board member Denise L. Cooper said in a press release following the shooting that this tragedy is a tipping point for Texans, and Golden agrees. “People … just absolutely want to see change and want to know who’s accountable for this,” Golden said. “On top of that, people hear about, read about [gun violence] in the news on a daily basis, then to face what we faced … and seeing how last legislative ses- sion went, I just think people are putting the pieces together and want answers.” Abbott is trying to work on those an- swers in a similar fashion to how he han- dled them in 2019 after the Santa Fe High shootings. He’s calling for a special legisla- tive committee. Included in the topics he would like to cover are school safety, mental health, social media, police training and firearms safety. Similar measures were taken after the Santa Fe shooting. They didn’t prevent Uvalde’s. Sen. Ted Cruz also posted his thoughts Wooden crosses are placed at a memorial dedicated to the victims of the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School. about the issue on Twitter: “What inevitably stops these horrific crimes: Armed good guys stopping armed bad guys.” This sparked outrage from Texas teachers who organized a protest in response. Abbott’s decision to include social media and mental illness in his list of problems that need to be considered by the legislative committee parallels the comments from those attending the NRA convention. What is also true is that in the interim be- tween the Santa Fe shooting and the Uvalde shooting, Abbott did a great deal to loosen gun laws, pushing for a one that allows Tex- ans to carry handguns without a permit. “The Legislature has continued to loosen gun laws and allow them to be carried in more places, by more people … and we’re facing a gun violence crisis,” Golden said. “It’s kind of unbelievable to leave sensible gun laws off the list, when in states that have stronger gun laws, they have fewer gun deaths. It’s a real disservice to our public safety and to the sentiment that many Tex- ans are feeling right now.” To leave gun violence prevention solu- tions off the table is missing an important point. “I don’t think that that inaction is going to fly for how people are feeling right now,” she said. “We have to throw all solutions on the table, including safe gun laws.” Honea believes that the laws in Texas are affecting educators in negative ways and students are losing out. “The students are the ones that pay the consequences of adults making decisions [that] many are not qualified to make,” Ho- nea wrote. “Educators would like to >> p8 MONTH XX–MONTH XX, 2014 JUNE 9–15, 2022 DALLAS OBSERVER DALLAS OBSERVER | CLASSIFIED | MUSIC | DISH | MOVIES | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | FEATURE | SCHUTZE | UNFAIR PARK | CONTENTS | CLASSIFIED | MUSIC | DISH | CULTURE | UNFAIR PARK | CONTENTS dallasobserver.com dallasobserver.com
