When the fire alarm rang at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on February 14, 2018, English teacher Sarah Lerner thought it was a routine drill. Minutes later, she and her students were barricaded in her classroom as gunshots echoed across campus.
“I was on campus when a gunman opened fire, killing 17, injuring 17, and traumatizing an entire community,” Lerner told reporters during an American Community Media news briefing. “I was in my class with my seniors, giving a quiz, when the fire alarm went off. I heard what sounded like firecrackers. I didn’t know where to go.”
Lerner sheltered 15 students for nearly three hours before a SWAT team escorted them out. Two of the victims were her students.
Sarah Lerner, Co-founder of Teachers Unify to End Gun Violence, explains the dangers of equipping teachers with guns.
“Having to text your tween that there’s an active shooter on campus — ‘I’m okay, I’m not shot’ — is nothing you ever think you’re going to text your children,” she said, noting that one of her own children was attending school nearby.
The Shooting Suspect
19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, who had been expelled from the school a year earlier, pleaded guilty to 17 counts of murder and 17 counts of attempted murder. He is serving 34 consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole at Florida State Prison in Raiford, Florida.
Classes did not resume until all 17 funerals were held. Two weeks later, when students returned, there was no learning happening. “How could I expect my students to finish reading 1984? How could I expect them to read Macbeth when everyone dies in the play? It’s impractical, it’s insensitive and it just wasn’t realistic.”
Parkland Speaks
In the aftermath, Lerner found herself not only grieving but documenting. As a journalism teacher and yearbook adviser, she helped students chronicle the lives of those killed and the activism that followed. That work became part of Parkland Speaks, a 2019 anthology featuring essays, poetry, artwork, and congressional testimony from 42 survivors.
“It was our story to tell,” Lerner said. “I didn’t want there to be any spin on what we experienced.”
Out of that trauma emerged Teachers Unify to End Gun Violence, an organization Lerner co-founded in 2021 with educators connected to Sandy Hook and New York City schools.
“There had not been a teacher voice in the gun violence prevention space,” she said. “And we were incensed that this continued to happen: from Sandy Hook to my school, and all the ones in between.”
Navigating Trauma
The group now counts tens of thousands of educators nationwide, advocating for safer gun policies and supporting teachers whose students experience violence—inside and outside schools.
“School shootings are a small piece of gun violence, but they get the most media coverage,” Lerner said. “Teachers deal with community gun violence, domestic violence, hate-driven violence. We’re the ones wiping tears, giving hugs, and helping students navigate trauma.”
Arming Teachers?
Lerner was unequivocal in rejecting proposals to arm teachers, a policy now legal in states such as Tennessee.
“To me personally, it is the most outrageous suggestion and it doesn’t make any sense,” she said. “You’re adding more guns, more weapons to a campus.”
She listed the risks bluntly: “What if a student gets a hold of my gun? What if I think someone is the intruder and I shoot the wrong person? Who’s paying for this weapon? Who’s paying for me to get trained?”
Beyond logistics, Lerner emphasized the emotional toll, particularly on minority students.
“You’re adding more weapons to schools with significant numbers of students of color, and that is going to be extra traumatizing,” she said. “I went to college to study English, not to become a police officer or a security guard.”
Leading Cause of Death for Children
Lerner pointed to data showing the scope of the crisis: guns are now the leading cause of death for children in the U.S., and an average of 57 shootings occur near schools every day. An estimated 4.5 million children live in homes with unsecured, loaded firearms.
“Secure storage, background checks, licensing—these are common-sense measures,” she said. “We’re not trying to come for your guns. We’re trying to save lives.”
For Lerner, the work is personal—and ongoing.
“It should never have happened to us,” she said. “But it should have stopped with us.”
