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In the aftermath of the Parkland shooting, Lerner said security has been increased. There are now three school resource officers on campus, security checkpoints and large gates.

Union representatives and teachers criticized legislators and officials for not including communities, schools and parents in making decisions around school safety and violence prevention.

At no level of education in the U.S. is there enough support; schools are not receiving what they need, Woodruff said.

\"PHOTO:
Citizens of the Planet/Getty Images, FILE
PHOTO: The March for Life rally has teachers protesting against guns in Culver City June 11 2022, Los Angeles.
>

Whitney Markwica, a teacher in upstate New York, has said she's nervous in light of recent shootings and it can be traumatic to go back to class in the wake of threats.

\"I think when you go into teaching, you go in because you want to educate future generations. You don't go in thinking and expecting that you're gonna have to put your life on the line in order to protect them,\" Markwica said. \"And I know, myself, and a lot of teachers would do that, but that's not part of the job that we signed up for.\"

How schools have changed

There has been a \"seismic shift\" in what schools are like for students, parents and teachers now compared to the 1990s, according to Linda Cavazos, the district trustee for a school board in Las Vegas and a former teacher.

One teacher told Cavazos she was worried about intervening in fights because she doesn't know \"if some kid is going to pull out a gun and try to shoot me,\" Cavazos told ABC News.

Even as recently as 2009-2010, just 84% of K-12 schools had written plans for active shooter scenarios compared to the 96% from 2019-2020, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

Cavazos said her district is now vigilant with K-9 searches and screenings and has encouraged students to report any threats.

Aside from school safety, teachers said more needs to be done to support students. While some schools have social workers on campus, crisis intervention and trauma support need to be strengthened.

Lerner said therapy dogs and service dogs brought to campus after the Parkland's shooting were a huge help for everyone.

\"PHOTO:
David Mcnew/Getty Images, FILE
PHOTO: Teachers rally at the March for Our Lives protest on June 11, 2022 in Los Angeles.
>

Schools are struggling to toe the line between making schools safer, but not turning them into prisons, according to La-Shanda West, a teacher in Miami-Dade County.

\"We want to be in a free atmosphere, but we want to feel safe,\" West told ABC News.

While West said she does feel safe at her school, there is no way of controlling the surrounding community. Students share that sentiment and are worried about community gun violence, she said.

Last year, there were 20,215 deaths in the U.S. due to gun violence, excluding deaths by suicide, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

West's school district has a partnership with Sandy Hook Promise, a nonprofit founded by the families of Sandy Hook Elementary school victims, incorporating their programs for school safety. While she believes their programs help, they don't solve the gun violence problem entirely.

West said parents should do a better job of storing their guns properly and keeping them away from children, referring to the 6-year-old student who shot his teacher in a classroom in Newport News.

\"If a 6-year-old can get access to a parent's weapon, what's to stop any child from doing that?\" West said.

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