There is already the disproportionate and overly aggressive disciplining of Black children in schools by administrators and violently by SROs who are positioned there. Like many people of color, I can immediately bring to mind racist teachers I had in high school so imagining them with a weapon is terrifying. As an administrator, I can attest to the biased discipline I witnessed that was harmful to Black students.

We’ve already seen a Black girl being dragged from a desk at Spring Valley High School in South Carolina when she refused to hand over her cell phone. The ensuing discussions revolved, sickly, around why people thought she deserved it. Adding guns to the mix for classroom teachers doesn’t inspire confidence. The Justice Policy Institute has already made a case against police in schools and many students from marginalized populations would be the first to agree with it based on their experiences…

I’m beyond glad that George and Amal Clooney, Oprah Winfrey, and others signed on to donate half a million dollars each to the organizing students from Parkland, Florida. Yet, there is another sneaking suspicion I have about this same kind of support for the Movement for Black Lives that was either absent or not at all on the same scale. Here’s the tough part: Black families know that the results of these protests (which won’t be described as “riots” like in Baltimore or Ferguson or a number of other places) will likely not be in policies that protect them or their children.

The suggestions for combatting these massacres have been to build schools as if combat would take place, inserting bullet-proof doors and metal detectors, arming teachers or hiring retired military personnel and all kinds of things that require an enormous amount of money. Where is this money when schools ask for fully funded institutions or when teachers reach into their own pockets to the tune of several hundred dollars per year? These magical, non-existant funds would be well spent on providing more trained teachers, support staff, social workers, school psychologists to say nothing of innovative technology for students and, you know, things we need to educate likecurriculum and textbooks and other materials.

Even better, let’s investigate this toxic whiteness and reflect on the biases that the more than 80% white teachers bring into public school systems daily. It’s uncomfortable to ask, but how exactly will arming those who are supposed to educate children affect Black students given their racial bias? How long before a teacher feels the need to make use of Stand Your Ground while on a school campus? Let’s demonstrate evidence that we’re responding to the years of Office of Civil Rights data that shows us the disparities in the education of our Black children. Let’s put money there, too. This is a both/and situation. We don’t have to put our issues in a silo to deal with them separately. We can work on ensuring that, God forbid, teachers who would be required to be armed in school settings that the lens brings to mind that some of those teachers are Black and get shot disproportionately inside and outside the schools.

On Protests, Arming Teachers, and What Schools Really Need