The head of the Florida Education Association on Wednesday pushed back against moves to arm school teachers, saying police should be the ones with firearms.
“We should leave guns in the hands of trained law enforcement officers,” Fedrick Ingram told Hill.TV’s Krystal Ball and Buck Sexton on “Rising.”
“We have spoken to teachers from the panhandle to the Keys, and the lion’s share of our teachers do not want to arm themselves,” he added. “It is not something that is going to make our students safer.”
President Trump floated the idea of arming teachers in the aftermath of last year’s shooting at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., that left 17 people dead.
The Florida Senate next month is slated to discuss putting firearms in the hands of teachers.
The state’s Senate Education Committee on Tuesday advanced a measure that would add teachers to a list of participants to take part in what’s known as the Guardian program, which allows qualified and trained personnel to carry guns on school property.
Ingram first argued against the move in a Sun Sentinel opinion piece last month.
“I’m a high school band director by trade, and it was my job to handle kids outside and inside in band practice, get them ready for halftime,” Ingram told Hill.TV. “I could not imagine having a gun on my person, and being responsible for 250 kids at a time in a marching band.”
“The unintended consequences, the just sheer accidents that happen, I don’t want that to be my child or your child, or anybody else’s because I went to school to teach kids, and that means I simply want the best for the students,” he added.
— Julia Manchester
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