Amid school violence, future teachers sound off on safety in the classroom

A new wave of aspiring educators will be graduating in the spring, but these soon-to-be teachers will be up against challenges other generations have been fortunate enough to avoid.

At FGCU, most from this senior class were born in 1996, just three years before the deadly Columbine shooting. This means they’ve never known a world without school shootings.

But they tell WINK News they are still passionate about becoming teachers, even if it means adding more to their job description.

“In my heart I knew I wanted to be a teacher,” said Taylor Berry, who wants to teach elementary school children. “The great teachers that stuck out to me really shined and made me want to become a teacher and change lives.”

But right on the heels of the shooting in Parkland, these future teachers are worried about more than their grades.

“It’s not something that anyone wants to talk about, it’s really not. It’s a really bad, negative thing, but it’s one of those things that has to be addressed,” said Daniel Hansen, who aspires to become a high school teacher.

“My boyfriend was like…’are you sure you want to do this? Like I get worried about when you go to school’. And I never thought of it as something that would worry people,” added Madeline Quinn, who also aspires to teach at the high school level.

On top of first aid classes and training seminars, teachers are also being taught what to do in an active shooter scenario.

“It just makes you really realize that something can happen at any school, anywhere,” said Berry. “It gets kind of scary now, and I never would’ve thought that, ever.”

The seniors say they never imagined their passion would be considered dangerous, but it won’t deter them from helping shape kids’ futures.

“It never occurred to me that I wouldn’t do it,” said Quinn. “It just meant that I would have to take a few more steps to make sure that the kids I care about are actually safe.”

“I love teaching and I’m going to keep doing that no matter what it takes,” added Hansen. “And if that means I have to take an extra class about safety or having armed guards in the school, I will do that, if that’s what it takes.”

Those future teachers say they’re not sure that arming staff members is the best idea for school safety. But they did say if it comes down to it, they’ll take any safety course they need to in order to protect their students.