English Teacher – School Safety

Last night’s episode of English Teacher was… not what I expected. I didn’t enjoy the feeling I got at the start of this episode. No, it has nothing to do with Evan and Malcolm, though I wish Evan would realize that he deserves more than running back to his ex-boyfriend whenever he has a minor inconvenience in his life. 

Now, let’s get back to the main focus of this episode: Markie’s ill timing gun club. Seriously, Markie? In the kind of world we live in now? This is what you think the children need? Evan walks into the school and suddenly gunshots ring out. He quickly ducks into a classroom and tells the students to get down and he seems to be the only one losing his mind over this. The students look at him like he’s insane and he’s confused at their reaction until they inform him that it isn’t a school shooting, it’s just Markie’s gun club. 

Evan brings up his concerns at the faculty meeting and insists that this club gets shut down. Markie argues that it’s a “firearms safety program” and the last time it was shut down was during the “dark days of ‘99” (I will let you do that research on your own with which dark days he’s referring to here) and that he isn’t going to allow the club to get shut down. Markie isn’t necessarily doing anything legally wrong and it’s (shockingly) school board approved (huh?) so the club is allowed to continue on. 

Pictured: Brian Jordan Alvarez as Evan Marquez © FX 2024. All Rights Reserved. 

The students have conflicting views on the matter: they don’t care because they’ve become used to drills preparing them for a school shooting (and that’s sad, but this scene doesn’t make it seem that sad which I appreciated). Evan becomes upset at this and says that they need to do something about it. In a very interesting turn of events, Evan and some students protest the gun club. Markie caught wind of this and he and some other students protested… the protest. 

It looked like things were about to go down in that hallway before Principal Moretti stepped in. While in the Principal’s office, Evan learns that the only way the gun club could get shut down is if there is an active threat received by the school. With this information, Evan has the idea to give his students a creative writing assignment with the prompt of “if you could get away with any heinous act, what would you do?” Now, sir…you KNOW exactly what you’re doing with this one. He’s hoping that one of these stories will be good enough to use to shut down the gun club. 

Pictured: Brian Jordan Alvarez as Evan Marquez © FX 2024. All Rights Reserved. 

His plan worked; with an “active threat” in place, Principal Moretti calls for the end of the gun club. Evan seemingly believes he’s won this battle but it turns out, instead of the students being the ones with the guns, teachers will now be required to be firearm trained and this training will be held by … you guessed it, Markie. 

Admittedly, this episode wasn’t the best, in my opinion, given the serious subject matter. I will say the comedic accuracy of how I imagine gun conversations happening in schools with teenagers made it an enjoyable watch. 

What did you think of last night’s episode of English Teacher? Share your thoughts below or connect with me on X/Twitter @chenfordhugs.