Lawmaker: School shootings have made teachers 1st responders

School shootings have turned teachers into first responders, and they deserve the same death benefits given to police officers and firefighters, a state lawmaker said Wednesday.

"I remember learning how to play dodgeball at recess; I don't remember my teachers telling me to lock the door when they left the room and to not open it until the gunshots ceased," Democratic Rep. Katherine Rogers told the House Finance Committee.

According to the latest statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were 909 school-associated violent deaths in the U.S. between the 1992-93 and 2011-12 school years. That total includes students, staff members and other victims.

While New Hampshire has avoided deadly violence in schools, Rogers noted that school employees are required to be trained in emergency response.

"We also know beyond being trained and expected to act in an emergency, our public school employees will instinctively move to protect our children, putting themselves in harm's way if necessary," said Rogers, who's from Concord. "That level of dedication creates a need for this legislation. ... Our school employees are not only teachers and caregivers for our children, they are in fact first responders."

Rogers' proposal would provide $100,000 in state funding to the family of any public school worker who dies in the line of duty, on top of any applicable retirement benefits. While Rogers said her intention was to limit the benefit to cases of violent deaths, committee members said the bill needs work to clarify whether it also would apply in cases of accidents or natural disasters.

No one spoke in opposition to the bill at Wednesday's public hearing. An attorney for the state Department of Education said the agency supports it but does not want to be involved in determining whether a death meets the criteria or which family member should receive the benefit.

Scott McGilvray, president of the state's largest teachers' union, NEA-New Hampshire, also spoke in support, saying that in an emergency educators are expected to "hold down the fort" until law enforcement arrives.

"When I first became a teacher back in 1988, nobody told me as part of my education and when I went into the profession that being an educator included being asked to put myself in harm's way," he said. "The world certainly has changed since I was first in the classroom."

According to Rogers, at least three other states have some kind of benefit for school workers who die on the job. Washington provides $150,000, Maryland offers scholarships to family members and North Carolina provides the equivalent of the worker's salary, she said.

The New Hampshire proposal mirrors a law that was passed in 2006 in response to the shooting death of a Manchester police officer. That law provides $100,000 to the families of police officers and firefighters who die in the line of duty.

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