Montini: Teacher, 'No microwave for my classroom but ... a gun?'

For days, now, President Donald Trump has been talking about how he wants to see armed teachers in the classroom.

It would be so much better if he'd talk about adequately paid teachers in the classroom, but ... no. Instead the president tweeted:

One of the teachers I’ve heard from over the past couple of days found Trump’s suggestion that the solution to school shootings is armed teachers to be “almost laughable, if it weren’t so tragic and dangerous and depressing.”

Irony lost on the president?

Others agreed and also, as another teacher said, “ironic in a way I’d guess the president wouldn’t appreciate.”

Adding, “In my school I can’t keep a small microwave in my room for ‘safety’ reasons but I can keep a Glock 19?”

Another told me, “I’m very pleased that the president believes I can be trusted to responsibly keep a deadly firearm in a locked drawer. I’m wondering if he might tell the administration that I could also be trusted with the punch code for the school’s copying machine.”

Another teacher pointed out that the average pay for an educator in Arizona is the lowest in the nation, less than the thousands of teachers who have been on strike in West Virginia.

Given that, she said, “Would the school district purchase these weapons for us because I’m on too tight a budget to afford one? And would we be able to choose our weapon of choice? I’d happily let them pick a gun for me if I could pick the textbook for my class. Sound fair?”

'Boys and girls, spell - S.W.A.T.'

And this one:

“So I spent four years of college, two years of graduate school earning my masters, and years of ongoing professional development requirements, all of which hasn’t helped me to earn enough to pay back my student loans yet or ever buy a new car and now I also have to be a S.W.A.T. team officer? Is that what the president wants?”

Yes.

I believe it is.

Finally, I received this from Joe Thomas, a teacher and president of the Arizona Education Association. He wrote, "Teachers cannot control the thermostat in their own classroom. They are often regulated centrally ... 

"You cannot use air fresheners in your classroom. (seriously ... potential allergy risk) ... Can't give a cough drop to a sick student. Can't show movies/video clips in class unless they are preapproved.

"Most importantly, teachers aren't allowed to advocate for their students when the danger is harder for some to see, and at the same time all around us. Like when class size is too high for individual students to receive the help they need. Or when pay is so low we have 5,000 classrooms with long term subs, emergency subs, or no one at all. When our supply cabinets are empty. When we give up art, band, and recess for standardized testing. Or when the legislature decides to address a teacher shortage by allowing anyone in off the street to teach. And then gives them a gun."

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