Angie, a 5th grade teacher in the training program, uses one of her targets to shield her identity. "I never myself had a gun, didn’t grow up around them, so it wasn’t in my life. But as I became a teacher and having the kids that are in my classroom and knowing that if there is a kind of threat, I’d want to protect them," she said.
Jen Kinney for Keystone Crossroads
Jen Kinney for Keystone Crossroads
Angie, a 5th grade teacher in the training program, uses one of her targets to shield her identity. "I never myself had a gun, didn’t grow up around them, so it wasn’t in my life. But as I became a teacher and having the kids that are in my classroom and knowing that if there is a kind of threat, I’d want to protect them," she said.
Jen Kinney for Keystone Crossroads
Angie, a 5th grade teacher in the training program, uses one of her targets to shield her identity. “I never myself had a gun, didn’t grow up around them, so it wasn’t in my life. But as I became a teacher and having the kids that are in my classroom and knowing that if there is a kind of threat, I’d want to protect them,” she said. (Jen Kinney for Keystone Crossroads)
Keystone Crossroads contributor Jen Kinney embedded with teachers in eastern Ohio who were training to carry guns while on the job. Jen’s story focused on Angie, a fifth-grade science and English teacher who had never touched a gun until May of this year. At Angie’s school, a third of teachers already carry anonymously, Jen reports.
The quote in the subject line? That’s from Jen’s piece. It was what a firearms instructor said to a teacher after she wondered if deescalation — using words to disarm a potentially violent person — would have been the better approach during a mock exercise. The instructor’s response: “Shooting people is a deescalation technique. If someone comes in your school with a gun and they’ve murdered eight people, is shooting not deescalating the situation?”
Jen’s trip to Ohio was an extension of her gun coverage in Pennsylvania, particularly efforts to arm teachers in the Tamaqua Area School District.
In January of this year, VICE News reported that at least 466 districts allowed school staff to be armed to carry guns — although getting an exact count is difficult.
In Pennsylvania, Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf has opposed arming teachers. This summer, he signed legislation that expands which security officers can carry guns in schools. CeaseFirePA and the Education Law Center urged Wolf to veto it, partially out of fear that districts might use the new law to justify arming teachers. But Wolf argued that the law clears up ambiguity over who can carry guns and ensures teachers can’t.
Matt Rourke / AP Photo
Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro speaks during a news conference in Philadelphia, Tuesday, May 14, 2019. (Matt Rourke / AP Photo)
Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro now says he supports “efforts to legalize, regulate and tax marijuana use for Pennsylvanians over the age of 21.” PennLive’s Jan Murphy has the context on Shapiro’s Friday announcement.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court declined to review the constitutionality of the state’s death penalty, Maryclaire Dale reports for The Associated Press. But the court says it will consider whether individual cases are fair.
The last victim compensation funds at Pennsylvania’s Roman Catholic dioceses will close today, The AP’s Marc Levy reports. He reports, based on partial information from the dioceses, that fund administrators have offered or paid more than $35 million to roughly 240 people. The Senate Judiciary Committee will have a hearing Wednesday related to debate over the statute of limitations in sexual abuse cases.
Adams County is trying to save its historic barns, The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Jason Nark reports. The story has an interesting map of the “Pennsylvania Barn Core Region” — a region I didn’t know existed until now (even though I appear to live in it).
Two Pa. newspaper editorial boards have weighed in on the impeachment of President Trump. First up last week was The Philadelphia Inquirer, which points out that impeachment is not removal from office, just the beginning of a process that could remove the president. At the other end of the turnpike, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says “derangement” by the president’s opponents started on election night 2016. “This denial of an elector result — and of the finality of elections — is corrosive for our system. It is more corrosive than Mr. Trump’s Tweets, corrosive as they are. And this denial, this distrust, boils down to failure of citizens to trust each other. And a failure of the elites to trust the people.”
Rosh Hashanah, which marks the beginning of the new year in the Hebrew calendar, began Sunday at sunset. PennLive has this guide to the Jewish holiday. And The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Peter Smith looked at how rabbis planned to incorporate the aftermath of the Oct. 27, 2018, Tree of Life massacre into their messages.
