Police respond at West Lafayette High School in Lafayette, Ind., as the school was evacuated on March 26. Police received a call from someone who claimed to be inside the school with a gun but did not find any credible evidence related to the threats.
About 1 in 4 U.S. teachers said their school went into a “gun-related lockdown” during the 2022-23 school year, according to new findings from the Pew Research Center.
The teachers told NBC News they experienced lockdowns “because of a gun or suspicion of a gun at their school,” with around 15% saying it happened once during the year and 8% saying it happened more than once.
“High school teachers are most likely to report experiencing these lockdowns: 34% say their school went on at least one gun-related lockdown in the last school year,” according to the research center. “This compares with 22% of middle school teachers and 16% of elementary school teachers.”
In 2023, 15 people were killed and nine were injured by gunfire in eight school shootings, while in 2022, 29 people were killed and 29 were injured by gunfire in seven school shootings, according to NBC News’ school shooting tracker.
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Urban school teachers (31%) were more likely to say their school had a lockdown that was gun-related than teachers at rural schools (20%) and suburban schools (19%), according to Pew.
About 59% of K-12 public school teachers said they were “at least somewhat worried” about a shooting happening at their school, with 18% saying they were “extremely or very worried,” the organization said. Around 31% of teachers were “not too worried” about school shootings, and 7% were “not at all worried.”
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Almost 40% of teachers surveyed by the Pew Research Center said their school had done a fair or poor job preparing them to deal with a potential active shooter, while 30% said their schools did an excellent or very good job.
Most of the teachers (69%) said that “improving mental health screening and treatment” would be effective in preventing school shootings, while 13% said teachers and administrators carrying guns in school would be effective. Around 49% said having armed security in schools would be a big help, and 33% said the same about metal detectors.
Teachers’ political views came into play when they were asked about what could be done to prevent school shootings, with 69% of Republican-leaning teachers saying that having armed security in school would be helpful, as opposed to 37% of Democratic-leaning teachers. Having metal detectors in schools received support from 43% of Republican-leaning teachers, compared to 27% of Democratic-leaning teachers. Meanwhile, allowing teachers and administrators to carry guns in school received 28% Republican-leaning support and 3% Democratic-leaning support.
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