Viral Trend Of Teachers Showing Shooting Safety Protocols Exposes How We’re Failing To Protect Educators
Will this help? Or just distract from the real problem.
TikTok People across the United States are still recovering after the deadly Uvalde school shooting that happened on May 24, causing an incensed nation to look for viable countermeasures to prevent something like that from happening again.
Many are angry about the way the Uvalde Police Department responded to the situation, and now others wonder if their kids are really safe.
Parents are seeking some sort of answer, some way to protect their children, and teachers on TikTok are resorting to desperate measures to practice safety.
Teachers on TikTok are exposing how we are failing to protect students.
A viral TikTok shows teachers using a chair leg to "lock" the door handle inside their classroom to protect from school shooters.
The TikTok below, posted by "@itsmisslee," shows how you can use a chair to "lock" the handle of a classroom door from the inside, ultimately preventing someone outside the classroom from gaining entry into the classroom.
While this is a temporary solution, there are a lot of inconsistencies that many have commented about on TikTok.
"Even if they try breaking the window or knob, it gives them a bit of time to plan and escape or something helpful," one user writes.
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While that is a valid concern and this gives some a small window to plan something, is it really enough to keep everyone safe?
"It's sad that teachers and students need to prepare for this," another user writes.
On Twitter, @RobbBeaux shows the method as well, to which many are commenting why the school does not have doors that can have modern locking standards to keep those students inside safe.
Others are commenting how their door handles are round instead, and this method would not work for them.
However, this "chair lock" method is a short-term solution for a long-term problem.
TikToker "@.little.jess" has suggested that while this can help, this is more of a short-term thing and not long-term.
"I feel like this is more of a short-term thing that eventually teachers are gonna stop doing or it's just going to fade out," she says in her video.
Her suggestion of interior classroom doors with an automatic lock is a viable solution that many school districts are trying to implement in the wake of the Uvalde mass shooting.
Many say that they have these systems implemented, but they don't feel safer; some have suggested using metal detectors, while others say that wedging a chair on the handle is a fire hazard.
Regardless something needs to be done. School is meant to be a place where children socialize with their friends and build their minds with a vast flow of knowledge and fun.
It's not meant to be a battlefield or a place where you fear that you'll survive when the bell rings, and it's time to go home.
Change needs to happen, and it needs to happen sooner rather than later.
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Kurtis Condra is a writer for YourTango, enjoying the foggy weather of San Francisco, California. When he's not looking for news and entertainment on celebrities, he's walking his dog hopefully on sunny days on Ocean Beach or taking his turtle on a stroll through Golden Gate Park.