It turns out that the 8th-grade teacher who asked a male student to go to his car and bring in a folding WWII-era folding military shovel had no idea he caused a schoolwide lockdown at Heritage Middle School Thursday.
A school staffer who saw that student carry the shovel in around 9 a.m. thought it might be a man carrying a double-bladed axe and told the Meridian police school resource officer.
That set in motion a chain of events that led to a 90-minute, room-by-room search by armed officers. Scared students and parents waiting at a nearby church were left to wonder what was going on
h/t to Dave G
My heavens! What on earth ever happened to a teacher or school staffer asking a student what that olive-green thing he was carrying was for? There certainly was NOT this much hysteria in the 70’s or 80’s at schools. I can remember being gently chided for having a very realistic cap-pistol during class in about 1973, because it was a disruption. At recess it was A-ok!
I had (and sometimes sold!) quite realistic carved wooden pistols at middle school. They were obviously toys, and everybody knew it. People communicated!
Adam-12 and various Westerns and War movies were on TV, so that’s what we played at recess!
Nowadays, I think behaviour like that might cause a state-wide incident with helicopters and SWAT teams swarming.
Reblogged this on Climate Ponderings.
Sad
Sometimes Mr. President, it takes a man with a gun to talk sense to a lunatic with a gun. No one died, but the deputy was ready in case someone had to…
http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2013/02/gunman_at_chelsea_school_likel.html
Those shovels can be used as a defensive weapon and can be used to chop wood.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVwkrxdpdSA
Next thing there’ll be lockdowns for bringing sharpened pencils into school.. and what about paper? That stuff can cut you mad!
I’m assuming that all the shop classes have now been shut down, since a student could use a power tool (or even non-powered) to harm others.