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When back to school means a return to worrying about school shootings • Tennessee Lookout [1]

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Date: 2025-09-08

Back to school season was always an exciting time for me as a kid. Every year, my parents would take my sisters and me shopping for new clothes, shoes, backpacks, Trapper Keepers, folders, book covers, pens and pencils. For a nerdy girl, the start of a new school year was like another birthday. I loved my new school supplies and couldn’t wait to see my friends after the summer break.

But now with schools back in session, it’s a time fraught with anxiety and fear. Back to school now means back to school shooting season. The season officially started this year on August 28 with a mass shooting at a private school in Minneapolis. For the parents, kids, teachers and staff at that school, their dreaded nightmare became tragically real.

Here in Nashville, I couldn’t help but reflect on the mass shooting that happened here at the Covenant school just two years ago. Our city collectively mourned that tragedy and turned up at the state capitol in droves, demanding action and change. It seemed like Gov. Bill Lee was listening when he called the special session of the state legislature.

Frustratingly, of the four bills that became law as a result of that session, only one had anything to do with guns.

Since that special session, gun safety advocates have been ever present at the Capitol, trying to convince legislators to do more on gun safety. Poll after poll shows the majority of Tennesseans want gun safety laws like extreme risk protection orders. But what do we get from our lawmakers? The obligatory “thoughts and prayers” and laws that will do little to nothing to help fix the root cause of the problem.

Several kids have gotten caught in the crosshairs of “school safety” laws. Schools now expel students for making statements thought to be threats of violence, calling the police and having them arrested. Instead of performing an investigation into a student’s possibly misunderstood statement and determining the appropriate disciplinary action, kids are being placed in handcuffs and sent to jail. When asked if they plan to fix this obvious problem with the law, our lawmakers have doubled down, saying “it’s working the way we want it to.”

Another bill our state legislature passed to address school safety provided funding for schools to employ School Resource Officers, or SROs, typically off duty police officers. A bill sponsored by Rep. Chris Todd of Jackson, which has yet to pass, would expand this role to include retired police officers and honorably discharged veterans.

There is controversy surrounding SROs. Some studies have shown that while having an SRO present can lead to less violence in schools, Black, Hispanic, and children with disabilities are disproportionately disciplined, leading to higher interactions with law enforcement and contributing to the school to prison pipeline. There have also been issues with SROs being careless with their firearms, putting students, teachers and staff at risk. In 2017, a student at a school in Morgan County found a gun left unattended by an SRO in a school bathroom.

Having an SRO in your school is no guarantee for your kids’ safety. In the most recent school shooting here in Nashville, at Antioch High School this past January, two SROs were present.

Instead of protecting children, these laws have turned schools into pipelines to the justice system. Students are being expelled and arrested for minor infractions, and this impact is gravely disproportionate. Rather than investigating and addressing behavior in a way that actually supports safety, lawmakers are choosing to criminalize children for being children, while refusing to pass the kinds of gun safety laws that would actually keep schools safe.

Another “school safety” bill passed last year, allowing Tennessee teachers to carry guns in schools, this one sponsored by Rep. Ryan Williams of Cookeville. Under the new law, school districts can opt in to arm teachers who must go through 40 hours of training, pass a psychological evaluation, submit fingerprints and get a handgun permit, steps that we somehow don’t require of other gun owners in Tennessee. Parents were understandably upset, especially since they would not be notified if there was a gun in their child’s classroom. The idea of having teachers carry guns in their classrooms is so ridiculous that we have yet to hear any school district adopt this policy.

This year, Tennessee parents may be surprised to learn about a new law that went into effect which requires students to learn about guns. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Chris Todd and Sen. Paul Bailey of Sparta, passed in 2024 but didn’t take effect until this school year. With the passage of this law, Tennessee became the first state in the country to require gun safety classes statewide.

Instead of requiring adults who own guns to go through mandatory safety training and require them to safely store their firearms out of the reach, lawmakers are putting the onus on kindergarteners to keep themselves and those around them safe. It’s absolutely maddening. Unfortunately we have months until our state legislature is back in session to push them to pass gun safety laws that actually make sense. Until then, we’ll force Tennessee’s school kids to be the adults in the room.

In Tennessee, school is back in session. Let’s hope our lawmakers learn how to pass gun laws that will actually keep our kids safe. Until they do, the outcome is predictable: more traumatized youth, more broken futures, and schools no safer than before.

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[1] Url: https://tennesseelookout.com/2025/09/08/when-back-to-school-means-a-return-to-worrying-about-school-shootings/

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