Arming Teachers as a Response to School Violence: Using a Risk Assessment Model to Understand Student Perceptions

ABSTRACT Arming teachers remains a divisive issue in the United States. Since one goal of this policy is to improve perceptions of safety, it is important to understand how arming teachers impacts students. Using survey data from six Midwestern school districts, we apply Ferraro’s risk assessment model to explore how individual and school conditions impact feelings of safety if teachers carry guns in school. We find perceived risk of victimization decreases feelings of safety if teachers are armed, which is driven by self-reported and vicarious victimization. Self-reported delinquency, in contrast, is directly related to feeling safer if teachers are armed. We conclude that arming teachers may mitigate efforts to help students feel safe in school by increasing fear among those with victimization experiences.