Children across the nation as young as 11 have been protesting guns in schools and “being hunted.” After the Republican-led Congress and Donald Trump failed miserably, these kids picked up the burden of change. The adults in Washington, D.C. continue to suck up the National Rifle Association’s (NRA) campaign dollars. Their idea of arming teachers was an incredibly stupid idea, especially as this accidental shooting showed.
Legislators and the president insisted that if the teachers have been trained in gun safety, that they can engage in a gun battle with anyone trying to pull off a mass shooting. Surely, the Republican lawmakers are not so ignorant that they believe the teacher could overpower an AR-15 weapon of war with a handgun.
At Seaside High School in Monterey County CA, a teacher accidentally discharged his gun and wounded a student, according to The Washington Post. He was also a reserve police officer and well-trained in firearms.
After Dennis Alexander’s gun discharged, he realized that one of his students was wounded. Fortunately, the 17-years-old young man only sustained non-life-threatening injuries, and he was being treated at a hospital.
The boy’s father said the teacher explained to his students that he was checking to see if his gun was loaded. The teacher told the kids that was not something people can see by looking at the gun.
After the gun discharged, debris and fragments struck the student “in the neck.” Seaside Police Chief Abdul Pridgen told The Monterey County Weekly that the young man had been:
‘Struck in the neck by debris or fragmentation from something overhead.’
Yet, the student’s father, Fermin Gonzales, told KSBW 8 that fragments from the bullet ricocheted off the ceiling and lodged in the boy’s neck”
‘It’s the craziest thing. It could have been very bad. He’s shaken up, but he’s going to be okay. I’m just pretty upset that no one told us anything and we had to call the police ourselves to report it.’
The teacher pointed the gun at the ceiling, but why? What was the teacher doing with his gun out? People forget that some teachers have issues. Yet, they want to put a gun in their hands.
Sand City Police Chief Brian Ferrante said Alexander’s took his last gun safety training less than a year ago. According to the Washington Post, the police chief said:
‘I have concerns about why he was displaying a loaded firearm in a classroom. We will be looking into that.’
Exactly why the teacher was displaying the weapon at all was not entirely clear. Police said he was “providing instruction related to public safety.” The father told KSBW that the teacher planned to show how to disarm someone.
Superintendent of the Monterey Peninsula Unified School District, Daniel “PK” Diffenbaugh, said the accident happened in Alexander’s administration of justice class. The course was part of funneling students into a career track.
Diffenbaugh said both state law and school policy forade firearms at the school without authorization, which Alexander did not have. According to the Washington Post:
‘Clearly, we will revisit this incident to ensure that something like this would never happen again. I think a lot of questions are on parents’ minds are, why a teacher would be pointing a loaded firearm at the ceiling in front of students. Clearly, in this incident, protocols were not followed.’
Alexander was placed on administrative leave at the school and at the Sand City Police Department, where he is a reserve officer. He teaches math and administration of justice. Alexander apologized for the accident.
Featured Image via Getty Images/Spencer Platt.
