- Ann Arbor Public Schools
- Superintendent's Messages
April 10, 2018 - Student Safety and Guns In Schools
In the Ann Arbor Public Schools (AAPS), we have been working to ensure student, staff, and parent safety on our school campuses by enacting policies to prevent the disruptive and dangerous presence of guns in our schools. In the Ann Arbor Public Schools, we believe that the possession of a gun in school, other than by sworn officers, runs counter to what we are hard-wired to do as educators: keep our students, staff, and families safe and ensure warm and welcoming environments where our students may grow and learn every day and our teachers, staff, and parents are safe to focus on our children.
Our AAPS district involvement with the issue of guns in schools began on Thursday evening, March 5th, 2015 when an individual with a concealed pistol license attended a choir concert at Pioneer High School and openly carried a gun into the auditorium. Unfortunately, during the three years since the AAPS was drawn into the issue of guns in schools, many more tragic deaths from school and other mass shootings have occurred across the country. In February, the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, resulting in the death of 14 students and 3 staff members again brought this issue even more forcefully into our national consciousness.
In public schools, we are charged under Michigan law with providing for the safety of the children entrusted to our care each day; we recognize that federal and state laws designate schools as safety sensitive zones and weapons free school zones. Ensuring the safety of students is the promise we make to our parents and community. Safety is our first and foremost duty, even before our critical mission of teaching and learning. Our priority must remain focused on ensuring the safe, supportive, and productive environment for learning that our children and staff deserve and our parents and community expect.
For three years now in the Ann Arbor Public Schools, we have defended the AAPS Board of Education’s school safety policies that have undergone challenges in Michigan courts. Since spring, 2015, these AAPS district policies have been upheld both by the Washtenaw County Circuit Court and the Court of Appeals. This process continues in our case, Michigan Gun Owners, Inc. v Ann Arbor Public Schools, with the hearing of Oral Arguments before the Michigan Supreme Court on Wednesday, April 11th. Amicus briefs have been submitted in support of the District’s position by the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, City of Ann Arbor, Michigan Association of School Boards, and the Michigan Education Association.
Now, more than ever, we believe that this is a time for reason, for wisdom, and for prioritizing the safety of our most vulnerable citizens, our children. We know, as parents and as responsible adults who care for children that guns and children make for an frightening and dangerous combination. In the same way that we have successfully protected our courthouses and legislative chambers, airports, and other sensitive locations through a prohibition of guns in those protected settings, it is long past time to ensure the same protections for our children in classrooms and schools in Michigan.
One of the primary arguments of proponents of allowing guns in schools is the idea that a ‘good guy with a gun’ can ensure safety in the case of an active shooter situation. Those who support the presence of guns in schools hold to the theory that having responsible armed gun owners in schools can deter, interrupt or minimize gun attacks. I wonder if supporters of allowing guns into Michigan schools recall real-life situations, right here at home in Michigan, where the presence of a gun-carrying adult in school placed everyone in danger.
On September 23, 2015, in L’Anse Creuse Public Schools, a parent pulled up to the school, observed a fight taking place and, wanting to lend a hand, intervened in the altercation. At one point, a gun belonging to this parent, a licensed CPL holder, fell from her holster onto the ground. Certainly, a gun loose on the ground in the midst of the escalated setting of a school altercation presents a significant risk to student safety; in fact, it constitutes an outright school emergency.
On March 3, 2015, in Macomb County, while attending an event at Cheyenne Elementary School in Macomb Township, a parent forgot his jacket that contained a handgun. Later, a custodian at the school discovered the jacket and gun, left on a stage in the gymnasium. For five hours a gun sat completely unguarded or watched in a Macomb County Elementary School. Fortunately, it was an alert custodian, not a small child, that found the gun.
Well-intended people, even those with gun training, are just like everyone else, prone to make mistakes. When a parent forgets a jacket or a gun falls out of a pocket at school, it could cost a child’s life. Both of these Michigan parents arrived at school on appropriate school business and both lost control of their weapons while on school property. The presence of their weapons in school placed everyone there at increased risk, posing a significant threat to the safety and security of students, staff, and families. While some believe that more guns in the hands of law-abiding citizens who could stop active shooters is a good idea, real-life Michigan examples provide compelling evidence to the contrary, and provide insight into the increased instability that comes with introducing weapons into a school environment. Allowing guns in our Michigan schools is an ill-conceived and dangerous solution.
If a compromise is what is needed in this current situation, we request those in positions of authority to consider providing the opportunity for local school districts and communities to clarify their positions on this important issue with school safety policies such as those enacted in the AAPS. Surely, respect for the fundamental value of local control survives even in the midst of widely differing perspectives on how best to achieve safe schools. If lawmakers feel unable to prohibit the carrying of guns in schools outright, they must, as Gov. Snyder has supported, allow the question of guns in schools to be answered within and by local school boards and communities. Ensuring a safe, nurturing, and protected environment for learning is both our moral imperative and our legal requirement under Michigan law.
It is the business of law to draw lines, and this week the Michigan Supreme Court has an opportunity to move forward in drawing a definitive line on the side of keeping our children safe while at school. We must preserve the sanctity and safety of our classrooms for our children and staff. Our one million Michigan children, and the teachers and staff who serve them, deserve to learn, teach, grow and thrive each day in protected, peaceful, and nurturing classrooms within safe and secure schools.
Jeanice K. Swift, Superintendent of Schools
Ann Arbor Public Schools