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She was told that fighting for her life could be a part of her job.
By NyRee Ausler — Written on Apr 06, 2023
Being a teacher is not for the faint of heart. With the risk of school shootings, lackluster time off and benefits, a no real gratitude from kids or parents, it’s a wonder we are able to keep any teachers working at all.
One frustrated teacher took to the subreddit, r/teachers to share her frustrations over the mandatory ‘active shooter’ training the staff at her school took. In the since-deleted post, she told readers that one of the bullet points in the training read, “be prepared to fight.”
Making just $37k a year, the teacher is questioning her career after being ordered to attend active shooter training.
The woman shared that she had been working as a teacher for eight years, but only made an annual salary of $37,000 per year. Recently, the school required teachers to undergo training to deal with the horrible realities of educating children.
According to her, the teachers were asked to fight for their lives if someone entered the classroom, intent on doing harm to students. She stated that her salary did not compensate her for risking her life in that way and later understandably deleted her comments, likely out of fear of being identified and facing repercussions.
Still, other teachers chimed in about their own harrowing experiences with the expectations placed on them by the administration.
One person said, “We just had one and the trooper spent like 25 minutes explaining why he and his fellow troopers are skilled and talented and us teachers are untrained and weak. Then his next slide was asking us to fight and one of the brave souls in the room commented 'You just said we had no chance in a fight, why would we risk it?'"
Another person correctly pointed out that the instructions provided to the woman and her colleagues seemed to conflict with what the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had instructed teachers to do in the event of an active shooter on the school grounds. They explicitly tell educators to run first, hide if they can’t escape, and fight as a last resort.
But, in all honesty, the actions a teacher should take when faced with violence are largely dependent on the circumstances, requiring them to make split-second life-and-death decisions in real time since most of these tragic events only last 10-15 minutes.
Educators can also inform themselves about the red flags indicating that a student or former student might be dangerous and act thanks to an FBI study of pre-attack behavior.
NyRee Ausler is a writer from Seattle, Washington, and author of seven books. She covers lifestyle and entertainment and news, as well as navigating the workplace and social issues.