Student teachers feeling the toll of school violence, educator says

编者按: This article contains content around gun violence and school shootings that may be upsetting for some readers.

Deena Gumina was in third grade in 1999 when a mass shooting at Columbine High School devastated her hometown of Littleton, 科罗拉多州. 从那以后的几年里, these kinds of violent events have become increasingly common across the country, altering the face of K-12 education in the United States—including for Gumina herself. She graduated from high school at Columbine in 2008 and later taught elementary school for five years in Denver.

Today, she’s an assistant teaching professor in the 博彩平台推荐的教育学院 where she prepares her students to become the teachers of the future. 上个月，她写了一篇 的专栏 Chalkbeat科罗拉多 about the emotional toll that gun violence has taken on her own students. 不幸的是，这篇文章来得正是时候——几天之后, another deadly school shooting took place in 科罗拉多州, 这是丹佛的东部高中.

Gumina spoke to 今天的科罗拉多大学 about how teachers have become increasingly “under attack” around the nation, 为什么她还能看到希望.

“I tell my students, ‘You can actually make a change,’” Gumina said. “‘You as one person along with your students can do something.’”

What motivated you to speak out about the challenges facing aspiring teachers today?

我的学生在2月10日星期二来上课. 18、第二天早上有一个 博尔德校园附近发生一起涉枪事件. They were scared, and they were not sure what to do. 我真的不知道该说什么. My students were looking to me to say, ‘It's going to be okay.“但我不知道. 我不知道他们是否安全. 我不知道他们的工作是否安全.

How do these violent incidents affect your students emotionally?

Some of our students have been in active shooter situations themselves. 他们都参加了射击训练. This has been the reality for them for their entire educational lives. It’s not new, but it's also impossible to normalize.

We’re all expected to hold this space for our students when we can't even hold it for ourselves: I'm here to be a safe space for you, 但我自己也觉得不安全. It feels like it’s event after event, and there’s not enough breathing room to recover.

你也曾接触过枪支暴力. 这如何改变了你的生活?

I was in third grade during the shooting at Columbine, but I have vivid memories of that day. That was the first time that many people around the country really understood that this could happen. It was a shift in our understanding of how school works. 

It landed on me at the time, and it continues to land on me. I felt it again every time I would do an active shooter drill with my students because I knew this was real.

Have school shootings shifted how we prepare students for becoming teachers?

I’m preparing students for a job that we see, over and over again, in the news is under attack. 它受到了很多层面的攻击. 这不仅仅是因为你的工作很难. Your job can also be dangerous, and that can color everything we do.

Students have to come into class and think about: ‘What would I do if this happened? 我该把我的孩子放在哪里? 我该躲到哪里去呢? 我怎么锁门呢? 博彩平台推荐能从窗户出去吗?’

当我是一名教师时，这对我来说真的很难. Now it’s equally hard as a teacher educator looking at my college students and telling them, “不幸的是, 这是工作的一部分, 即使不应该是这样. You’re going to do two to three active shooter drills a year.’ 

What gives you hope, even amid these horrific events?

There is so much hope in the youth, among our college and high school students. 3月, students from East High School in Denver took their mental health day to do a walkout and protest at the 科罗拉多州 State Capitol. 他们对此不满意. It’s not hypothetical situation for them in the way I think it is for many of the adults who make policy decisions.

Students here at the university and those who are facing this in high school are so strong and resilient. 是时候让成年人来照顾他们了. 

教师们是如何针对这些问题采取行动的?

Anyone who works with students should be willing to do the same thing. 仅仅悲伤是不够的.

I think action is possible if we continue to show up. 我的工作就是为我的大学生们露面. It's my college students’ job to show up for their elementary students. There is power in numbers, and there are many of us. There are so many people who feel this very deeply and urgently. 

That’s the message that I try to send to my students about everything they are up against in schools: If you don't like it, 努力去改变它.