I am writing in response to the gun debate and state Rep. Brad Klippert's plan to introduce a bill allowing teachers to carry a weapon. I am a retired educator who was raised with guns. I graduated from high school in 1955. Many of the boys in my class had their shotguns in their trucks so they could go bird hunting after school. My brother and dad both had hunting rifles, shotguns, pistols and other firearms. Guns were in our home. My brother and I were taught to respect firearms.

I spent 30 years in junior high and elementary school classrooms. At no time would I have been comfortable or felt the need to be armed. Today, the world is different and life is not respected, but in 1992, the year I retired, I had no safe place in my classroom! My purse was stolen, my students' personal property was stolen.

When I think about, if I had had a weapon, where would have been a safe place to keep it? The classroom should be a safe place, but having armed teachers makes it a scary nightmare situation, in my opinion.

VIVIAN MARTIN, Kennewick