School districts in the America of America are struggling to hire and retain highly qualified teachers. The Department of Education emphasis on the need to retain at least two million highly qualified teachers over the next century has increased the severity of the problem. The purpose of the qualitative, phenomenological research study was to explore former teachers’ lived experiences dealing with kindergarten-12 (K-12) students and their views on how security technologies or lack of security technologies may affect highly qualified teacher hire and retention rates, teacher transfers, teachers leaving the education profession, teacher safety, teacher stress, and teacher anxiety. The study explored the continued personal and physical effects experienced after having worked in the K-12 educational profession. Phenomenological study design was used to examine possible actions educational leaders may employ to address the lack of security technologies availability in educational systems causing a shortage of highly qualified teachers throughout the United States. The research findings include seven themes and 11 possible actions to reduce the shortage of highly qualified teachers. Ten former schoolteachers located throughout the United States agreed to participate in the study. The researcher identified eleven recommendations to rectify the problem United States schools are facing, which is a lack of highly qualified teachers. The results of the current research may provide educational leaders with strategies and interventions to solve the shortage of highly qualified teachers. Establishing interventions can also assist in eliminating highly qualified teacher shortages and address security issues within educational settings.