The Pennsylvania State Education Association opposes the Senate-passed bill that would allow teachers to carry guns in schools.
“I don’t know that they would be able to react properly in a crisis situation,” PSEA Vice President Dolores McCracken said. “Our goal is to keep guns out of school, not to put guns into schools.”
McCracken says an incident last year in a Pennsylvania private school highlights the dangers of arming school personnel. In that case, a teacher left a loaded handgun in a bathroom that was accessible to both students and teachers.
“My understanding of that incident was that firearm sat in that bathroom for three hours before students went and reported it to the office,” she said. “Fortunately, no one touched it.”
The teachers’ organization says they are not opposed to school resource officers and law enforcement being in schools to protect students and staff because they are trained and know how to react in a crisis.
