Weapons
Technique:
Weapons cannot be tolerated. Students and teachers have the unalienable
right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Intimidation prevents
all three.
Procedures:
- Detail
school policy in the district policy manual.
- Send
notices home to parents requesting signatures.
- Verbally
review the policy with all students.
- Set up
procedures which permit students to alert an adult to the presence of
a weapon or the plan to bring or use one without losing face.
- Enforce
every infraction.
- Do not
model use of weapons and force - paddles, etc.
Occasionally a student comes to possess a weapon without thought of intimidation.
The weapons is still dangerous, but even with weapons, some discretion is
appropriate. The following is a true story.
One morning,
shortly after beginning class, a student close to the back of the room
stood up and called my name. The voice was shaky and unthreatening.
I looked up and saw Robert standing in the aisle with a gun in his hand.
My immediate response was to panic. I swallowed, looked at Robert closely
to pick up non verbal signals and then took a deep breath. His finger
was not on the trigger and I could not detect signs of anger. I asked
him if I could see what he was holding, intentionally refraining from
saying the word "gun." He nodded and I walked to him. I took
the gun from him and walked with him to the classroom door close to
the front of the room. Once we were outside of earshot of the other
students (I stood in the hall with my foot propping open the door),
I asked him about the gun. He told me that his father had shot the mother
that morning before school. He couldn't think if he should call the
police or not, but he was certain it was best to get younger brothers
and sisters to school and get the gun away from his father. He picked
up the gun where the father dropped it, got the other children on the
bus, and once he sat down in class, ran out of plan.
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