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Local teacher comments on arming teachers: "The day they try to arm me is my last day of teaching"

Posted at 5:25 PM, Feb 23, 2018
and last updated 2018-02-23 20:12:02-05

President Donald Trump suggested arming teachers would harden schools, stirring a debate all over the country on how to prevent school shootings. 

Tucson Education Association President Jason Freed, who represents 4,500 teachers and support staff, says guns in school is not the answer. 

"Educators didn't get into this profession for anything other than try to help our kids so something like this absolutely goes against what educators are doing," said Freed. 

Instead, he would like to see more money go towards education funding. 

"When we move that billion dollars back in then we can start hiring counselors so counselors can be addressing mental illness, than we can start hiring security than we can start hiring monitors," he said. "Than we can start doing the things that actually are preventative and as well as addressing any possibility of somebody showing up on a campus."

"The day they try to arm me is my last day of teaching," said Tucson City Councilman and teacher Paul Cunningham.

Cunningham says arming teachers can potentially cause more harm. 

"Well there are all kinds of different scenarios that could play out whether or not a kid gets ahold of the gun whether it is an accident," Cunningham said. 

He suggests adding more school resource officers and alternative programs to schools.

President Trump tweeted Thursday that he doesn't want to arm every teacher, only the highly trained, gun adept teachers and coaches to be a great deterrent.