Arming Teachers in America

This photo accompanies an essay that explores the highly controversial trend of K-12 schools arming teachers and other school staff in the United States. Since the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in 2012—and the more recent school shootings in Parkland, FL, and Uvalde, TX—well over a dozen states have begun arming teachers. Shockingly, no one official federal or state body has been keeping count of how many schools across the nation have armed staff, and in many communities, even the parents and the general public remained uninformed. Often without public knowledge, there are teachers, administrators, custodians, nurses, and bus drivers carrying guns in America’s schools. This photograph was taken at an Ohio gun-training program designed for school staff in a community divided over arming its teachers.

Kate Way

Kate Way is a critical educator, photographer, and documentary filmmaker based in western Massachusetts. Her interests lie in the intersection of media literacy, public education and policy, and social and economic justice. With a doctorate in Language, Literacy, and Culture, Kate is a Lecturer in the College of Education at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and director of the Visual Literacy Project, a secondary school documentary photography program. Her photography has been published on numerous platforms.