Trained, Armed and Ready. To Teach Kindergarten.

July 31 2022

Dr. Tracie L. Keesee, the Co-Founder of the Center for Policing Equity, was quoted in a New York Times article by Sarah Mervosh. The article explores a new approach to school safety being explored in some areas that include arming teachers in an effort to protect students and faculty from future school shooters. Some school boards allow firearms on school campuses as long as the teachers receive training. Dr. Keesee discussed that training with the author.

From the coverage: "More school employees are carrying guns to defend against school shootings. In Ohio, a contentious new law requires no more than 24 hours of training. [...] The program did not include formal training on how implicit bias might affect decision-making.

Black and Hispanic Americans are killed by the police at significantly higher rates than white Americans, and in school, Black students experience the highest rates of suspension of all racial groups.

At one point in the program, the group fired at a row of paper targets showing a photo of a Black woman holding a handgun. Later, the targets showed a white man with a rifle.

But some experts say that targets should show a greater mix of race, gender and age, so as not to reinforce stereotypes or prime the mind to see particular groups as a threat. 

“If you are trying to look at bad guys, then there should be an array of bad guys,” said Tracie Keesee, a co-founder of the Center for Policing Equity. “We also know the prominent folks who do the types of shootings in schools are not Black women.”

View the discussion at MSNBC.com.

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