In the “capitalist death circus,” America fights the school shooting epidemic by wasting billions on the theater of war—marketing bulletproof backpacks, bunker-desks, and combat simulators to turn teachers into soldiers. For educators, surviving a shooting is a double trauma—a harrowing collision between their own survival instincts and responsibility to their students. To remain a protective figure, they often suppress their own terror and grief, leading to an emotional burnout that few other professions experience. Teachers Are in a Permanent State of High Alert Teachers are also secondary first responders, forced to absorb student terror without the specialized training or emotional distance of emergency professionals. This can create a painful paradox: The teacher is simultaneously a victim, protector, and witness. Resulting survivor’s guilt—an intense, often irrational sense of failure to protect every child—may make their path to recovery even more complex. This secondary trauma is the deep physical and emotional distress caused by absorbing the pain of others. Even without witnessing a shooting, many teachers live in chronic stress, working within a system that treats schools …