By Georgina Gustin
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. — In Professor Michael Afolayan’s classroom at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, a group of teachers gathered to learn about their profession. Not from other teachers. From police officers.
The teachers are taking a course in classroom management as part of a master’s degree program, and for Thursday’s session, professor Afolayan invited the officers to address something that has increasingly begun to weigh on the teachers’ minds: violence in schools.
By Afolayan’s count there have been at least 48 school shootings around the world in the past decade — all but 11 of them in the United States. Those incidents have claimed the lives of more than 100 students and 32 school staff members, mostly teachers.
Those numbers filter into the psyche of modern classrooms, where teachers are forced to consider the constant possibility of violence.
Like all teachers today, those in Afolayan’s class — most of them from Metro East schools — had a lot of questions. Should they lock their classroom doors? What should they do if someone brings a gun to school? How do they tell the difference between a joke and a real threat? Should they break up fights if that means risking injury to themselves?
There are no simple answers. The police officials stressed that it’s up to teachers to make sure their schools have clear response plans in case they have to react to a violent incident. Several teachers said, however, that their administrators have not made it clear to them what action they should take.
“Our administrators don’t seem to recognize the dangers we face,” said one teacher, who asked not to be named.
More importantly, the officers said, teachers have to know their students and always be on the lookout for behavior that might indicate brewing trouble. Watch for students withdrawing or being bullied, they said.
During their discussion Thursday, the teachers and police officers learned how similar their jobs can be. Often they have to compensate for bad or absent parenting. They have to cope with behavioral problems that stem from environments beyond their control.
Alycia Morford, a prekindergarten teacher in the Hillsboro School District, recalled how a 5-year-old brought a gun to school and threatened a girl. When school officials suspended the boy and brought him home, they arrived to find the police arresting his father for drug possession.
“I feel sorry for instructors who work in the primary grades because they’re expected to be the parent,” said Rich Schardan, chief of the Maryville Police Department, addressing the class. “I think you face the same thing we do.”
Those in law enforcement and the teaching profession often find themselves trying to fix societal problems — or at least cope with its symptoms.
“It’s bigger than schools,” said Major Terry Bell of the Collinsville Police Department. “It’s bigger than the police.”
So what’s a teacher to do?
“More than anything else, as teachers, we have to prevent violence from happening,” Afolayan said, addressing his class. “Getting to know these kids is very, very important. More than likely if you pay attention to them you’ll see the red flag.”
Yet there’s only so much a teacher can do, the police said.
“Folks, you’re not going to save the world,” said David Bradford, chief of the Glen Carbon Police Department. “You’re not going to make a difference in every life you touch. You’re not going to turn every kid around. If you think you can, you’ll drive yourself crazy and you’re going to quit. And then you’ll become a cop.”
“At the end of the day,” Bradford added. “Your primary responsibility is to get home to your family.”
Copyright 2007 St. Louis Post-Dispatch