There have been at least 50 school shootings in the United States so far this year as of Sept. 19. Thirty-seven of those have happened at K-12 schools, according to Gun Violence Archive, Education Week and Everytown for Gun Safety. One of these shootings includes the shooting at Omaha’s Northwest High School on Sept. 11.
The threat of violence at schools has weighed on students’, teachers’ and families’ minds for decades, but for the next generation of teachers, it is something that might sway their decision to be a teacher in the first place.
“I have had an experience with school safety being compromised,” sophomore and future second-grade teacher Makenna Armstrong said. “Last year, I worked with CCLC and we had a ‘fake’ shooting (a student made a threat of a school shooting after stealing a walkie-talkie). Students were still afraid and wanted to leave school forever.
“The main thing that went through my mind was how to protect these kids and myself with a chair. I was holding a chair, ready to launch it at the door,” Armstrong said.
Even the threat of a shooting puts staff and students in fight-or-flight mode, especially when school shootings are on the rise. 2021, 2022 and 2023 were some of the deadliest years for school shootings, with record deaths and record shootings since school shootings have been recorded.
“It hasn’t swayed my commitment to teaching,” Armstrong said. “This has been an issue since forever and I know the risk I’m getting involved in. It does scare me, though, that I’m going into a profession that shouldn’t require me to worry about my safety on a daily basis.”
More than 60% of teachers say they worry about a mass shooting occurring at their schools, according to a 2018 survey by the National Education Association. These stressors have resulted in teachers quitting at an alarming rate and can steer students away from the profession altogether.
Nebraska has not reported any school shootings since the Omaha Northwest High School shooting on Sept. 11; however, threats of violence against schools are a common occurrence, with many of these threats going unreported.
