More Thoughts on Authoritarian Education (1): Packing a Pistol in the Classroom?

Here's one of a few news items I heard recently which have kept me thinking about authoritarian education. This one is about a teacher who wants to carry a gun to class. On the surface, it appears to be a story about self-protection. But underneath the surface, it's a also a story about fear, power, and authority.

The story (Teacher Asks for Right to Be Armed in Classroom) was about a high school English teacher in Medford, OR who is suing for the right to carry a concealed weapon in her school. According to the story, she says she needs a gun because she's afraid that her ex-husband might try to come to school to harm her. This may be a legitimate concern, but is a pistol-packing teacher really the answer here? Gun owners may be trained on how to handle their firearm effectively, but what kind of training do they receive on how to protect others while they're at it? My 20 years of martial arts training taught me that defending oneself is difficult enough, but defending oneself and a group of bystanders at the same time is a much more difficult proposition, as real-life situations are a lot more complicated than plugging a potential perpetrator. Muggers can get the drop on carriers of concealed (and for that matter open) weapons before they can respond. Tussles can occur, with shots going off in random directions. Is this an appropriate element to introduce to a classroom environment full of kids?
While you're imagining the kids, also imagine the lawyers standing by waiting for the liability lawsuits...

How is this germane to authoritarian education? What strikes me most about this story is the teacher's extension of their presumed authority to a decision which affects others. Of course, parents and administrators have a very strong stake in this, but the implication is that the children don't have any say in this because they are children. I wonder if she asked any of her students whether they thought it would be a good idea. If she is so concerned by it and believes it would affect their well-being, perhaps she could ask them for ideas how on to improve the situation. I bet they could come up with lots of better ideas.

Then of course there's the obvious symbolism of a teacher packing classroom heat -- I bet that would help with classroom discipline issues.

It may be that the teacher's lawsuit is a ploy to get better school security, although it didn't really sound that way to me when I heard the interview; the teacher really seemed to be arguing that she had a 2nd Amendment right to carry firearms. Imagine if a public employee filed a similar lawsuit -- it would go nowhere.

This story of course also illustrates the Maslowian hierarchy of needs under which schools operate. Schools' most basic function is custodial -- not just the child care that makes two-income families and economic growth in advanced countries possible, but also the safety and security function which is the foundation for everything else, including learning. (As one illustration of this, name any pedagogical innovation which is better known than Columbine.)