In a class devoted to public safety
Oops.
A teacher who is also a reserve police officer trained in firearm use ‘accidentally’ discharged a gun Tuesday at Seaside High School in Monterey County, Calif., during a class devoted to public safety, school officials said in a statement. A male student was reported to have sustained non-life-threatening injuries.
The weapon, which was not described, was pointed at the ceiling, according to a statement from the school, and debris fell from the ceiling.
Arm the teachers! Everyone will be safe then!
The teacher was identified by police as Dennis Alexander, who teaches math as well as a course in the administration of justice. Alexander is a reserve police officer for Sand City and a Seaside city councilman. He could not immediately be reached for comment but he has reportedly apologized for the incident.
The Monterey County Weekly, quoting Sand City Police Chief Brian Ferrante, reported that Alexander had his last gun safety training less than a year ago. “I have concerns about why he was displaying a loaded firearm in a classroom,” Ferrante told KSBW. “We will be looking into that.”
Why did he fire a gun into the ceiling? To make sure it wasn’t loaded.
The incident comes amid a national debate on how to protect students from mass shootings like the one that took the lives of 17 people in Parkland, Fla., on Feb. 14. Among the proposals advanced is training and arming teachers, an approach favored by President Trump, among others, but opposed by a majority of the teachers in the National Education Association, including many who said in an NEA survey that it would make them feel less safe.
I can’t imagine why…
Yeah, doing the “even if you think you know a gun isn’t loaded, assume it is” routine. He really drove that point home. It would be funny if a kid hadn’t gotten hurt.
Could have been a lot worse had the bullet gone through the ceiling and into a classroom above (assuming there is one). Still, it’s a reflection on the gun culture in the U.S. when a teacher is giving a class on how to disarm an armed assailant.
One bullet fired, three students injured. Efficient, at least. Shades of Davy Crockett.
Within the next year: shooter shows up and begins killing. Terrified armed teacher who does not regularly train to use a weapon under conditions that inoculate against stress then shoots the wrong student and is killed by the SWAT team responding to the active shooter call.
The jokes just write themselves.
Chris Tygesen, I can easily see police arriving on the scene of an on-going shooting and having the shooter claiming to SWAT that he (the shooter) is a teacher, and directing them to a (or even multiple) armed member(s) of staff as the assailant(s).
AoS.: Yup. So many guns, so many possibilities.