A school in Monticello gained national attention this week after teachers testified about an extreme active shooter training that left them terrified. The Indiana State Teachers Association reported teachers were “shot execution style,” leaving bruises and welts.
This training comes as Indiana lawmakers are considering HB 1253, a bill that would normalize and encourage allowing guns in schools. If enacted, the legislation would draw funds from Indiana’s Safe Schools Fund to provide firearms training to teachers, school staff and employees in K-12 schools.
Whether it’s subjecting teachers to cruel active shooter trainings or offering training to arm teachers, Indiana is moving towards accepting school shootings and guns in schools as normal.
To keep Indiana’s schools safe, lawmakers and school districts should consider evidence-based intervention strategies, including those in a new report by Everytown for Gun Safety and the country’s two largest teachers unions, the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association. The report backs a number of approaches to protecting schools, including:
- Policies proven to help keep guns away from people who shouldn’t have them in the first place, including requiring background checks on all gun sales.
- Improving the physical security of schools with expert-endorsed tactics like installing internal locks and limiting the number of entry points and who can enter schools.
- Supporting the health of students by creating safe and equitable schools and by providing more counselors, psychologists and social workers to help increase mental health services and social-emotional support in schools.
- Intervention strategies that can be implemented by school districts, including threat assessment programs that empower educators to safely, responsibly and effectively intervene when there are signs that a student is in crisis or poses a risk.
If you have any questions on HB 1253 or guns in Indiana schools, or to speak with a volunteer from the Indiana chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, please don’t hesitate to reach out.