Making the Grade: Degrees of safety as teaching becomes more complex and dangerous

WACO, Texas (KWTX) - Student safety is a top priority for teachers and staff but does constantly preparing for the worst take a toll on educators?

According to the Department of Public Safety, more than 200 threats to our schools have been made across the state this year.

Earlier this year, Candra Rogers, the assistant principal at Collins Intermediate School in Corsicana, lost sight in one eye after a student attacked her.

“He picked up a chair and acted as if he would throw it,” said Rogers. “He finally did throw it.”

While Rogers was able to block three chairs, she couldn’t stop the wooden hanger he threw next.

“The hanger hit me in my right eye and knocked it out of the socket,” said Rogers. “I grabbed my face while blood was pouring out of my head and stumbled out of the classroom door.”

Sadly, incidents like this are seen across the country and Central Texas.

As of mid-November in the Killeen Independent School District, there have been 174 incidents of students injuring teachers since the first day of school this year.

At a meeting of the Killeen ISD board of trustees, members discussed their priorities for the 89th legislative session. Priority number one is safety.

“There are many issues being discussed among our colleagues across the state but we have focused the majority of our attention on one specific area of need, safe classrooms for all,” said Dr. Susan Buckley, Assistant Superintendent for Administrative Services, Killeen ISD. “Severe student behaviors have continued to escalate since 2020 across the state of Texas.”

One thing is clear, teaching has become more complex and dangerous.

In an Education Week survey, 41% of staff members said “their sense of safety at work had decreased compared to before the pandemic.”

KWTX News 10 First Alert Anchor Alyssa Riggs spoke with two of her former teachers from Waco about how their roles have changed over the years.

“I think a lot of people think teaching is just that 8 to 4 job. You have your weekends off you have all summer off and it’s so much more than that,” said Susan Giddings, retired teacher. “Most teachers take things home or even if you don’t take things home you take those concerns home. I think that the teacher of old that perhaps I started out as has evolved to be so much more encompassing that you have so many more responsibilities so many more expectations perhaps.”

Teacher Jason Forbis says the daily preparation doesn’t just include planning and teaching but they must also meet the many needs of students.

A big aspect of the change is an increase in student mental health needs and national studies back that up.

In 2023 four out of 10 students felt sad or hopeless according to the Centers for Disease Control.

Forbis says teachers have to take into consideration the mental health of the child to ensure that they are educated properly.

“Many of them struggle with different things or perhaps are more open about it but I think we have seen an increase in the struggle,” said Giddings. “It wasn’t a part of our job on paper but I think most teachers take it on.”

Giddings says she never felt scared or threatened and school was a safe place. However, she remembers an incident at Waco High School in September 2022, when law enforcement responded to what they thought was an active shooter.

“I was truly frightened it was my conference and they had said we were on a lockdown but I hadn’t checked my phone because I’m terrible about that,” recalled Giddings. “I had a student at that time who was handicapped and he would always come to class a little bit early.. and he didn’t come and he didn’t come so I opened up the door to see if I’d missed him. And then I see a swat team in the hallway.”

The emotion from that day has not faded for Giddings.

“It just scared the bejesus out of me I went back to my desk and then I checked my phone,” said Giddings. “I sat there and cried until they said you have to move and they actually came in my room and looked around under desks and in the corners.”

Then a position no teacher wants to see their students in.

“Watching the kids walk down the hall and they told them they had to hold their hands up so there was nothing in their hands, that was scary.”

To prepare students and staff the best they can schools like Axtell provide training that enacts possible scenarios should they happen.

“These teachers went to college to mold the minds of our future teachers and our future inventors for a cure for cancer and things so the tactical is way off what they went to school for,” said Johnny Price, owner of Big Iron Guardian School Safety Training.

In ‘all school active shooter training’ Price tries to simulate the stress of an active shooter situation by applying three steps: avoid the shooter, deny entry, and defend.

“The thing is if that school is breached that teachers going to need to know what to do and if they at least have a little working knowledge they have a better chance than deer in the headlights,” said Price.

Price stressed showing teachers how to protect themselves and their students is the most important thing.

“The majority of them I think like the training, appreciate it,” said Price. “Then you have a few that it’s not what they signed up for and they don’t want to do it and I understand it.”

Despite it not being what they thought they were getting into, many teachers say seeing the students succeed is a calling worth the possible risk.

When Susan Giddings was asked what motivated her to continue teaching despite the challenges she said this.

“The students I always loved my kids,” said Giddings. “That was the hardest part of leaving was the students because that’s my primary job was to help them become better thinkers writers readers communicators and I just, it was always the kids.”

As for Candra Rogers, her future as an educator is unclear but she stresses the need to re-evaluate student discipline so no other teacher is put in a similar situation.

“As educators, we care about our students and their safety but we must also care about the safety of our educational staff,” said Rogers. “Our safety is important, too.”

Texas lawmakers passed new requirements late last year that include: requiring an armed security guard on all school campuses, panic buttons in classrooms and one drill a school year pertaining to active threats.

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