ATLANTA — Lawmakers will consider financial incentives to encourage Georgia teachers to carry guns to school, but a recent survey indicates that most educators are unwilling.
Lieutenant Governor Burt Jones has proposed offering $10,000 to teachers who volunteer to undergo training and arm themselves while in the classroom. Legislators plan to consider the proposal during next year’s legislative session.
Teachers would have to live in a school district allowing teachers to have guns. So far, only three of Georgia’s 180 school districts have okayed it.
In 2018, Laurens County in central Georgia made history when the school board became the first in the state to allow teachers to carry weapons into the classroom.
Laurens School Superintendent Clifford Garnto said each school has, on average, seven employees with a weapon. Some are teachers; some are not.
“We vary between 55-60 employees who carry,” said Garnto. “Those who carry follow the same training as law enforcement and must meet the same qualification standards.”
The guns are kept under two lock systems.
Gordon and Fannin County school boards have since approved teachers to carry guns into schools. 11Alive reached out to administrators to ask how many teachers have volunteered to carry weapons into the classroom. No one has responded.
The President of the Georgia Association of Educators, Lisa Morgan, said it’s unlikely that a financial incentive would be enough to convince many teachers.
“It’s one more responsibility added to the plate of our classroom teachers,” Morgan said. “We already know teachers have a multitude of duties beyond classroom instruction, which is our primary duty.”
A survey by the Rand Corporation of one thousand teachers across the country found that 57% believe arming educators would make schools less safe. 19% said they would be willing to carry a gun if their school district allowed it.
Cobb County gave some non-law enforcement employees the okay to carry guns into schools, but that doesn’t include teachers.