I have mixed feelings about this story:
A school superintendent in North Dakota will resign after he says he took a gun to school to protect himself.
Tioga Superintendent D’Wayne Johnston said in an interview Wednesday that he brought the weapon to the high school on Oct. 2 because of a threat from a boy that resulted in the student’s expulsion. Johnston says he should have instead asked for more help from police.
Johnston refused to go into detail about the threat but says the boy had previous discipline problems.
After several people saw the gun, Johnston acknowledged carrying it.
First up, the rules are rules. Carrying a gun in this school is strictly prohibited, and whether you’re the superintendent or a janitor, the rules are the same. Still the idea of “Asking for more help from Police” is a little less comforting. Would they take it seriously, would they be there to protect? I can carry a gun all day every day, I can’t expect a full security detail from my local police.
Its my personal thought that if you legitimately feel your life is in danger, you should take all steps to reasonably protect yourself, be they legal or not (tho legal is always better, and legal and not against any private policy better still). He could have not gone to work, but I suspect that that would have only encouraged further misbehavior from other delinquents under his charge.
Better to be alive and looking for a job, than be dead or disabled. Still this story ends with neither. His gun was NOT discovered because he used it in self defense, it was just “seen by others”. This implies that he either wasn’t concealing it, or carrying it in a very crude method.
That’s a bad judgement call IMHO. I can understand somebody’s desire to carry against an employer’s wishes, especially given a direct threat, and I assume police WERE notified of whatever this threat was. Still one must weigh the risks of doing any action. I carry a quality gun in a safe but accessible holster. There of course is more of a risk of negative effects from my gun by carrying it vs. leaving it at home, but my assessment is that the benefits far out weigh the risks. Further if a person is carrying in a place where they could face legal or disciplinary actions for carrying, one must select the gun and method of carry VERY carefully that the risk of discovery outside of an actual defensive scenario is slim to none.
I don’t think that method was selected, and I’m so sorry that we live in place where a man is now out of work, despite committing no crimes, causing no harm, and all because he was threatened in the duties of his job.
We SHOULD live in a world where the school board apologizes for that situation happening and at WORST negotiation how they can better serve him in a way that he might be persuaded to leave his gun at home.
We don’t live in that world, and sadly I don’t see that changing in my lifetime.
