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Majority of public school teachers worry about school shootings
Four-in-ten teachers said that their school has done a fair or poor job in preparing them to handle a shooting
Representative Image / Unsplash
Twenty-five years after the horrific mass shooting at Colorado's Columbine High School, 59 percent of public K-12 educators surveyed by the Pew Research Center still worry about the possibility of a school shooting. Among them, 18 percent indicate feeling extremely or very worried about this possibility.
The survey coincides with a period marked by a record number of school shootings, with 82 incidents reported in 2023. Against this backdrop, gun safety remains a prominent issue in the 2024 election campaigns.
Graphic / Pew Research CenterApproximately a quarter of teachers (23 percent) report experiencing a lockdown during the 2022-23 school year due to the presence of a gun or suspicion of a gun at their school. Among them, 15 percent indicate that this occurred once during the year, while 8 percent state that it happened more than once.
High school teachers are most commonly affected by these lockdowns, with 34 percent reporting that their school experienced at least one gun-related lockdown in the last school year. In comparison, 22 percent of middle school teachers and 16 percent of elementary school teachers reported similar experiences.
Roughly four-in-ten teachers (39 percent) indicate that their school has done a fair or poor job in providing them with the necessary training and resources to handle a potential active shooter situation.
Republican and Republican-leaning teachers are significantly more inclined than Democratic and Democratic-leaning teachers to consider certain measures highly effective in enhancing school safety. These measures include having police officers or armed security in schools, with 69 percent of Republicans in favor compared to 37 percent of Democrats.
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Graphic / Pew Research CenterAdditionally, 43 percent of Republican teachers find the presence of metal detectors in schools highly effective, compared to 27 percent of Democratic teachers. The biggest difference is on the question of whether or not school administrators and teachers should be allowed to carry weapons on school grounds; 28 percent of Republicans are in favor of this idea, while only 3 percent of Democrats are.
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