Name: Seth Harms

Role: Theatre teacher at Eastmoor Academy

        Following him up the stage steps, it’s clear that Seth Harms is in his element. We begin the interview as his next class files into the theater.

        As someone who often has students go to him to talk about personal issues, Seth strongly believes that schools need more social workers and counselors. There needs to be an immediate response to students’ mental health needs, and while both counselors at Eastmoor Academy are excellent, they just aren’t enough. Similarly, he wonders why they don’t have their own resource officer at Eastmoor Academy. The resource officer primarily interacts with students during lunch, and seems to have a good relationship with students.

        Continuing on the thread of school safety, Seth says he feels very safe at Eastmoor, particularly because he does teach in an urban setting, “there haven’t been any mass shootings in urban settings”. If there is a problem, it’s dealt with one-on-one, whether that be with another student or with a teacher. He thinks that most students feel safe once they get to school, and although there have been threats to the school, the response to keep students safe has been strong. Teachers, however, should not be the school’s security, they should not have guns. Teachers are there “to nurture and to care, to listen to, to help them [students] grow”. They don’t need to be armed. If everyone is armed, we’ll be lulled into thinking that “this is normal”. Now, we think school shootings are normal, and not doing anything about it is normal. In reality, gun violence is a real threat to students, and because of the color of the teacher’s skin, the teacher might also be in danger because they have a gun.

        Schools are pressure cookers of sorts, pressuring students to memorize more in order to pass tests that require little understanding and which are run by corporations looking to make money. There is an incredible amount of mental pressure, and emphasis needs to be put on mental health in order to stop this trend of school shootings. Seth says we must go back to true education; learn about the problems in society and from the past to avoid repeating the same mistakes. Education should help students reflect and empower them to make a change, like the Parkland students are doing now, “the students are doing something that effects the entire nation”.