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During Domestic Violence Awareness Month, very few people’s first thoughts are about teachers. They should be.

I spent more than 30 years in the classroom as a teacher and I saw how domestic violence intruded on the classroom in so many different ways. Around three-quarters of our nation’s K-12 teachers are women, and women are much more likely to experience domestic violence than men. According to the CDC, 41 percent of women have reported experiencing violence or stalking compared to 26 percent of men.

As a teacher, I especially think about the troubling link between domestic violence and gun violence. Nearly 70 percent of mass shootings involve a perpetrator with a history of domestic violence or family violence, according to a recent study.

Fortunately, we have more tools to intervene than ever before. Unfortunately, teachers are often left out of the loop. Connecticut was the first state in the nation to pass a “red flag” law. Signed into law in 1999, the law allowed law enforcement to seek a court order to remove guns and ammunition from the home of a person if there is cause to believe they pose an imminent risk of causing injury to themselves or others. Connecticut later modernized the law in 2021 to allow family members and medical professionals to also seek a court order.

Even after the law was modernized, as a teacher, I never received training about how these provisions, which are called “extreme risk protection orders,” work. That’s a significant gap that should be addressed. As teachers, we wear so many hats – not just educators, – we’re also unofficial clinicians and advisers.

Much of teacher training involves our obligations to be mandatory reporters when a child faces abuse, neglect, or threats to their safety, training that is critical. But we should be going beyond that to make sure teachers are aware of extreme risk protection orders, which are now on the books in 21 states and the District of Columbia. Because too often, the public is not aware of these important tools.

A California survey found two-thirds of residents were unaware of the state’s Red Flag law, but 70 percent were supportive when they learned about the law’s provisions. In Connecticut, a study from this year found 79 percent of the state’s medical professionals were unaware of the state’s Red Flag law.

I’m not suggesting that teachers should be involved in having an extreme risk protection order issued. But we can be critical in helping to educate the community about these tools. When I think back to a mother who sat across from me in school who was visibly in crisis, or even a coworker who was struggling, I wish I had known about these provisions so that I could have been a better advocate for a struggling parent.