Some NYC teachers, parents say lawmakers must address gun control before leaving for Memorial Day holiday break
NEW YORK -- Parents dropped off their kids at school Wednesday with heavy hearts and concerns about their children's safety.
One teacher told CBS2's Lisa Rozner it's a painful reminder that their job carries so much more than educating.
"I completely lost it and I just thought about as a preschool teacher, as a native Texan, what I would experience," Aliyah Jacobson said.
Jacobson, a teacher in New York City, is from Austin, just 45 minutes for Uvalde, site of Tuesday's massacre at an elementary school. She said she has been pursuing her education degree from Brooklyn College, and has taken Krav Maga martial arts classes regularly and learned about lockdowns and panic buttons.
"These children from a young age are getting PTSD from having to learn that they need to run and hide in a small room and be quiet so the bad guys don't kill them," Jacobson said. "It's like a pretty ridiculous thing that our country has become a place where we have to worry about our safety while we're teaching babies."
Jacobson said she, herself, is a registered gun owner and change needs to happen immediately on Capitol Hill.
"My petition is to the congressmen that please do not leave for Memorial Day break until you can get together and pass the law for background checks for assault weapons," Jacobson said.
Parent Melanie Santana said she hesitated sending her 7-year-old to school Wednesday. Outside the Zeta Charter School on West 178th Street, Rozner spoke to her and other parents.
"Definitely gun control, change laws," Santana said.
"I thought, oh my God, I left my child. One of those children could be my son, too," parent Maria Pichardo said. "Have more police officers even at the entrance of the school for us to feel safe."
"It's a false sense of security. We put our kids lives in the hands of these teachers in the schools every day," John Rodriguez said.
"Teachers are going through a lot right now because we're coming back and all the children have their social-emotional development and coming back from not being with other people," Jacobson added.
And now teachers and parents have the delicate task of informing them about the capabilities of other people, too.