The Life Argotic

This is a bit of older news, but I need to share this. Apparently, getting shot at is now a part of our job description as teachers. According to the Denver Post, the lawyers representing the Newport News school district are trying to get her lawsuit dismissed by claiming that Zwerner, “is only entitled to file a worker’s compensation claim because the injury she sustained from the shooting is a ‘workplace injury,’ and that the shooting was a hazard of the job.”

That’s right. They are claiming that being shot is now just an everyday occurrence in classrooms and therefore is just another workplace hazard. Primarily, my hope is that the argument fails and/or gets tossed out as absurd; however, the fact that this is even an argument is disturbing of its own volition. Since January first of this year, there have been 23 school shootings in the United States; and summer vacation is coming to a close.

The language of the filing, while not surprising, is dangerous and leads us further down the road toward normalizing workplace violence especially in schools. However, this case and its language is not limited to schools. If this argument is successful, it will mean another step further into gun violence being the rule rather than the exception in everyday life. It will mean more militarization in schools through armed teachers, if state Republicans get their way, and fewer legal options for those most impacted.

I want to ask if America is really willing to accept more dead children, but I already know the answer.