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Melissa Falkowski, who teaches newspaper, English and creative writing at Marjory Stoneman Douglas, told ABC News that the shooting has left her feeling “failed by society, failed by the state, failed by Congress.”

“Because they’ve just, on this particular issue, have been taken no action in recent years, and so I just feel like what happened to us was totally preventable,” she said.

\"PHOTO:
Saul Martinez/The New York Times
PHOTO: A father and daughter embrace after a mass shooting at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., Feb. 14, 2018.
>

Falkowski said she and 19 of her students hid in a closet in her classroom during the Feb. 14 shooting. She called the notion of training teachers on how to use weapons and arming them in schools as a way to combat school shooters was “absurd.”

“The logistics of it make no sense,” she said. “Like in this scenario [at Marjory Stoneman Douglas], [the shooter] was wearing full body armor, with this AR-15 … shooting down the hallways as a barrage of bullets, and he’s wearing protective headgear, and so you’re going to take a teacher who’s concealed carrying some kind of handgun and you’re going to pit them against somebody who has an AR-15 and full body armor, and so that is not a fair fight.”

“And in that moment,” Falkowski continued, “the teachers are shielding the students, throwing themselves on top of the kids, and trying to comfort for them and put them in a place where they can be safe and out of his view and out of his way, and so they don’t have time to react to ‘Oh my gosh, let me go into this locked cabinet and get a gun,’ and so I don’t think in this scenario that it would have helped.”

\"PHOTO:
Wilfredo Lee/AP
PHOTO: Anxious family members wait for information on students, Feb. 14, 2018, in Parkland, Fla. after a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
>

Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, said there was a telephone town hall with 60,000 teachers Wednesday night and \"the response was universal, even from educators who are gun owners: teachers don't want to be armed, we want to teach.\"

\"We don’t want to be, and would never have the expertise needed to be, sharpshooters; no amount of training can prepare an armed teacher to go up against an AR-15,\" Weingarten said in a statement released by the AFT.

\"How would arming teachers even work? Would kindergarten teachers be carrying guns in holsters? Is every classroom now going to have a gun closet? Will it be locked? When you have seconds to act when you hear the code for an active shooter, is a teacher supposed to use those seconds getting her gun instead of getting her students to safety?\" she said in the statement. \"Anyone who pushes arming teachers doesn’t understand teachers and doesn’t understand our schools. Adding more guns to schools may create an illusion of safety, but in reality it would make our classrooms less safe.\"

Kasey Hansen said she believes teachers should have the ability to defend their students.

“I'm just a teacher who wants to protect her students. I'm not going to roam the halls if I hear lockdown is occurring and someone's in the building. I'm not going to go looking for him,” Hansen said. “That's not my job. My job is to lock the classroom. Turn off all the lights. Get the kids in the corner and be ready.”

While some might argue that people in schools during a shooting should wait for police, Hansen said that might take too long.

“How long is it going to take for the police to get there? And how long is it going to take for them to roam the halls? My school is a big school,” Hansen said. “The gunman could be anywhere. He could be in my room clear across campus and it's going to take a while for the police to figure out.”

\"PHOTO:
ABC News
PHOTO: Kasey Hansen, a special education teacher in Utah, is seen here practicing at a gun range with a video simulation.
>

Following the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, Hansen said it was her mom who encouraged her to take a concealed carry class.

“I wasn't planning on buying a gun. It was just information. And I learned about gun safety. I learned about the gun laws. I learned about protection. It was educational,” Hansen said. “It got me thinking, ‘What would I do if a shooting at my school happened?’”

Hansen said she doesn’t tell her students when she is carrying her gun and might not always have it on her. She also believes people shouldn’t need to know whether or not she is carrying her gun.

“It's my personal choice, and it's my right to decide that. And so why tell anyone?” she said. “I almost feel like I would be a target if I announce to my boss, if I announce to my students, if I announce to my parents, ‘Hey guess what? Today I'm wearing a gun. Just FYI.’”

Hansen said she also likes the idea of retired military being employed by schools for security.

“I wish more schools would implement it,” she said. “I don't think the protection and the security should be on teachers.”

For those hesitant about using guns, Hansen said practice and education are key.

“And if you know how to handle it, if you know what you're doing, and if you start to practice your mindset and start to visualize, ‘OK, where would I go in my school? Where would I be? How would I protect my students?’” Hansen said. “If you start that visualization and that thought process, it's really not as scary as you might think.”

ABC News' Meghan Keneally contributed to this story.

Jay-Sheree Allen, MD, a resident in the ABC News Medical Unit, contributed to this story.

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