LUCAS COUNTY, Ohio — Kyle Linehan has been a math teacher at Springfield High School for 15 years.
He says he loves the job and the people he works with. But after seeing another mass shooting in Uvalde, he was shocked to see a lack of response from local leaders.
Currently, the only legislation drafted for Ohio schools is a ban on talking about sexual orientation in the classroom, with nothing for updating or changing policies to focus on safety. Frustrated, Linehan decided to pen a letter telling Ohio leaders to refocus their priorities.
WTOL 11 has published the letter in its entirety.
"[Local leaders are] just creating issues out of things that aren't issues, and then when teachers are literally under attack, we have no solutions for it," Linehan said.
In the letter, Lineham said that multiple books and lesson plans might be banned in Ohio because their content has been accused of being used to, quote, 'groom' kids to become gay. Linehan said that's absurd.
"We have the best interest of your kids in mind, we do not mean to do any of the things you say we're doing in the classroom," said Linehan.
In the letter, Linehan wrote that the only grooming he does is preparing students for the daily reality that another shooting could happen at their school. He says these are lessons kids shouldn't have to learn, and demands leaders start taking charge and proposing ways to keep kids safer.
"I mean, get caught trying. Get caught doing something! See if it works, if it doesn't work, admit "okay, it didn't work, we gotta try something else or we can go back to the way it was," but there is a problem and something needs to be tried," Linehan said.
Linehan's gut instinct is the leaders need to start with guns, whether it's banning assault weapons, a gun buyback program, or even a moratorium on production. But he admits he's not a gun person. However, Ken Shields, the owner of Cleland's Outdoor World in Swanton, certainly is, and he believes those steps wouldn't help.
"Banning guns isn't gonna fix anything. There are so many guns out there now, there's such a black market and everything else, that they're never gonna go away. So the only person you're going to affect is the law-abiding citizen," Shields said.
However, WTOL 11 had Shields read Linehan's letter, and while they disagree on solutions, they both think the issue is to the point that leaders need to come to the table and start working on solutions in a bi-partisan way.
"there's got to be moderate communication in the middle and figure out what the best way forward is. And if it's a gun ban a the end, it's a gun ban at the end, but I think if you bring both sides together and we get to the root of the problem, you're not gonna have this kind of stuff," Shields said.