I Will Die for Your Kids

As I sit here on my bed, having just received news of school being cancelled due to an ice storm, I can't help but think of the recent school shooting tragedy. You see, I'm not a teacher...yet. I'm trying my best to become one. I have wanted to become a teacher for many years and now I'm on my way. I was supposed to be in my assigned classroom where I learn under a mentor teacher. The thing about today is it was supposed to be the first time back in a classroom since the shooting in Florida.

Being a teacher is not supposed to be inherently dangerous. Yet, people I know and love have mentioned to me that they worry about me. They don't want me to be hurt. Isn't there something else I could do? My friends and family worry that, by being a teacher, I am putting my life at risk. I don't care. I want to be a teacher because students need me.

Becoming a teacher is about wanting to help students succeed. I want that. I do not want to change the world, I simply want to change someone's world. If I can help students read and write and comprehend better, I have helped them gain a better access to the world. That is all I want to do. I want to help someone increase their chances of success and give them the tools to make their life better. That comes with a certain risk now.

As a teacher, the possibility of an active shooter coming into a building to kill me and my students is real. I have to make peace with that fact. I have made peace with that.

I will not seek a different career path because of other's desire to harm me or my students. If I change my career path, it takes me out of a school, but it does not take those students out. Students have a right to learn and they have a right to learn without fear of being shot. Someone has to be with those students. Someone has to help those students when they are scared.

Gun laws need to change in this country. Teaching students how to write an essay in MLA format shouldn't come with the random risk of a mass shooting.

Whether you think laws should change or not, I wanted to let you know that I am not afraid. I have chosen my path and I will not be moved by fear. If the worst day of your life comes and you get that call or text from your child that there is an active shooter in the school and they are crying for you and you are helpless...I will be there. I will be there to help them. I will be there to protect them. I will be there telling them that help is coming. I will stand in front of the bullets meant for your children. I am a teacher and I will die protecting your children.

Instead of talking friends out of becoming educators because of the risk of gun violence, steps should be made to protect schools. More guns is not the answer. Gun control works. If you know someone that wants to be a teacher or is a teacher, vote for laws to protect them. Teachers shouldn't have to die to protect your children. Teaching should not be dangerous. School should not be dangerous. Guns should not be so easily accessible for everyone. A "good guy with a gun" is not the answer. The answer is legislation to limit the sales of high powered weapons. No one NEEDS an AR-15. Just because they are "cool" and you like them does not mean everyone needs easy access to them.

"But my rights..." What about your children's rights? Don't they have the right to enter a school and know they are not going to die because someone decided to kill them for no reason? What about my rights? Isn't it my right to educate your children without making peace with the possibility of dying for them? What other profession has to face the fact that they may die for your children? Doctors? Lawyers? Mail-carriers? Retail workers? They won't have to die for your children. I might.

There's a lot of things in this world that are both cool and dangerous. We limit access to the dangerous for obvious reasons. It's time to limit access to guns for obvious reasons. Before you argue that knives are just as dangerous, let me ask you when the last time was that someone took 500 knives into a hotel room, opened a window, and threw them into an unsuspecting crowd in an attempt to kill thousands? Yes, knives are a danger too, but knives can be stopped by other means. It is easier to take down a person with a knife than it is to take down a person with a high powered gun. Will taking away guns eliminate all violence? Of course not, and we know that, but it can limit the number of victims. Don't make me and your children victims just because you think guns are cool.