The article “I’m a school psychologist – and I think teachers should be armed,” written by Michael W. Goldberg in 2018, presents his views on school shootings. As a professional psychologist, he claims that bearing arms by school teachers is a reasonable measure intended to instill a sense of security among students. The statement is supported by evidence from his work and data from the Centers for Disease Control, which is sufficient for justifying this initiative. Therefore, the author successfully proves the necessity to address the problem by implementing the specified changes.
The first argument is based upon the results of the Justice Department’s survey, according to which criminals avoid to “mess around with a victim,” which is armed (Goldberg, 2018). Goldberg supports this perspective and projects it onto the situation at schools. He says that bearing concealed weapons by teachers would deter students from committing a crime. The claim is reliable due to the inclusion of credible external sources. However, a similar survey should be conducted at schools before implementing this measure.
The second argument is that armed teachers can “reduce trauma for our students,” and it is supported by the author’s personal experience (Goldberg, 2018). Goldberg states that his work with people after the shooting revealed the importance for children to be confident in their safety. It allowed him to conclude on the necessity to decrease their level of stress by introducing the new rules of bearing concealed weapons by teachers. For this, it is necessary to inform students about the usefulness of such measures.
The decision to make teachers wear concealed weapons at school seems beneficial in terms of providing students’ safety. The results of the studies and surveys of various organizations lead to the conclusion that such actions will be both reasonable and effective. In this way, the presence of teachers and other staff armed will increase the safety of children through the fear of criminals getting injured.
Reference
Goldberg, M. (2018). I’m a school psychologist — and I think teachers should be armed. Forward. Web.