254 - Beyond Lockdown Drills: A Qualitative Study of Teachers’ Perspectives on a Firearm Safety Education in Schools

Publication Number: 2244.254

Noor Zarrinnegar, University of California, Berkeley, Hillsborough, CA, United States; Madeline Adams, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, CA, United States; Helene Nepomuceno, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, CA, United States; Stephanie Chao, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, United States; Vivien K. Sun, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, CA, United States

Background: Firearm violence is the leading cause of pediatric deaths in the US. Currently, there are no widespread, evidence-based firearm safety curriculums in US schools.

Objective: The goal of this study is to understand U.S. schoolteachers' perspectives regarding firearm safety among children and how to best design a school-based firearm safety curriculum.

Design/Methods: This was an IRB-approved qualitative study with semi-structured focus groups of US K-12 teachers. Between August 2024 and May 2025, we completed six 90-minute focus groups through Zoom. Participants were recruited using convenience sampling via public school networks. We drew on expert consensus and the Health Belief Model to develop focus group questions. Focus groups were recorded and transcribed verbatim. Three investigators inductively open-coded a subset of transcripts to develop a code book. Two investigators independently used this codebook to code transcripts. Codes were reconciled iteratively. Additional codes were added to the codebook ad hoc. Four investigators then developed themes based on our code outputs until consensus was reached.

Results: 23 teachers participated. Most participants identified as women (n=13, 70%) and taught either middle or high school (n=14, 58%). A minority of participants reported firearm ownership (n=3, 13%). Most participants felt either "not at all" or "slightly" confident in their school's preparedness for an active shooter situation (n=17, 74%). Four themes emerged: (1) Teachers who work across different settings and have different levels of exposure to firearms consistently report severe anxiety regarding firearm violence at school and among students; (2) The ubiquity of firearms in real life and media results in students feeling desensitized to firearm violence and less likely to seek mental health support in the wake of firearm injuries; (3) Lockdown drills are the most common avenue for discussing firearms at school; however, teachers report that these drills are extremely variable resulting in feelings of underpreparedness and anxiety among teachers and students; and (4) Teachers felt the ideal firearm safety curriculum would be longitudinal with developmentally-appropriate lessons either starting in pre-K, kindergarten, or elementary school then continuing through high school.

Conclusion(s): US schoolteachers experience severe anxiety regarding firearms and feel under-equipped to manage real-life threats. Implementation of a longitudinal, age-appropriate firearm safety curriculum in US schools may provide an opportunity for primary prevention of firearm injuries
through education.

Final Themes
Table 1 displays the four final themes and corresponding illustrative quotes.

Demographics of Participants
Table 2 shows participant demographics (n=23).