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Guns a hot topic of discussion for Maine's teachers

School violence has escalated the discussion of arming teachers.

(NEWS CENTER Maine) -- Around Maine, the consensus is that the recent school threats and shootings will not derail people those who have chosen education as their career plan.

"I can't live my life that way...I want to be a teacher, and no matter what happens in the school, I am going to be a teacher," said Allison Stanley of Arrowsic.

Talk of arming teachers with guns escalated over the weekend and in some parts of the country, it's already happening. An elementary school in West Plains, Missouri started arming a select amount teachers back in 2012 after the Sandy Hook shooting in Connecticut. The teachers who have concealed weapons permits attended 40 hours of the training class, and nobody besides the principal, superintendent and school board members knows who the carrying teachers are.

Aya Wakita, a USM Sophomore who wants to be a teacher, disagrees with that policy.

"I think it's absurd that people think we should have guns in the classroom, to be honest."

The conversation of teacher's carrying weapons has spurred an online movement "Arm Me With." It's made up of teachers asking to be armed with various resources that would make the job of teaching easier, and not with weapons.

Jasmine Bird is a teaching assistant in South Portland. "I'd like to think that when it comes to the safety of our children, we would enact evidence-based solutions, and not fight fire with fire. It just doesn't seem like a good idea. I don't think putting more guns in the classroom is a good idea at all."

Meanwhile, Sarah Carlson, who teaches at Cascade Brook School in Farmington, wrote this poem about teachers being armed:

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