Letter: Teach Kids What To Do When They Come Across a Gun

Darien’s children have just completed another academic year in one of the highest rated school systems in Connecticut. Our goal is to educate our students so that they can be successful, productive citizens and live lives that are healthy and safe. In our classrooms and in our health curriculum, we teach children about the dangers of smoking, strangers, drugs and alcohol. We give them the tools to avoid and say no to these risky behaviors. Why do we not teach children what to do if they encounter a gun at home or at a friend’s house?

A recent New York Times article cited some sobering facts from a study of gun owning Americans with children under the age of 18:

* In households with adolescents ages 13 - 17, firearms were left unlocked 41 percent of the time;

* Thirty-one percent (31%) stored a gun unlocked while 21 percent stored a gun loaded;

* Eight percent (8%) stored at least one gun unlocked and loaded.

Time and again, experience has shown us how alluring firearms are to children. Innocent curiosity can have deadly consequences when even legal firearms are not stored as the law requires; locked, and unloaded. It is incumbent upon us as parents and educators to teach our children how to walk away safely from an encounter with an unlocked and possibly loaded gun.

The classroom is a valuable resource and an appropriate environment to teach this important personal safety lesson. Personally, I will be urging the Superintendent and the Board of Education to incorporate lessons on this important topic into the Health curriculum at all of our schools.

I urge you to consider this topic carefully and to inform your PTO Chair, school principal and the superintendent if you agree.

Susan LeHan