As each story about a gun going off inside a school surfaces in the wake of the Parkland shooting, it’s becoming (at least to the author of this article) more apparent that arming teachers doesn’t make make a school safer. It may even be a downright hazard.
This Tuesday in the California city of Seaside, a man who on paper is the ideal candidate to carry a gun in the classroom, ended up injuring three of his students anyway. Dennis Alexander is a high school math teacher and reserve police officer, and was teaching a course on gun safety when his gun went off, injuring three students who were present. KSBW reports that Alexander was aiming his gun at the ceiling when it went off, sending shattered ceiling material raining down on the students.
California law says teachers are not allowed to have a guns in classrooms, even if they have concealed-carry permits.
The Seaside Police Department notified parents that no students were seriously injured — except for a 17-year-old boy who had pieces of ceiling “lodged in his neck.”
Aside from the sense of paranoia news stories may make one feel, school shootings are actually quite rare. As The Washington Post reported earlier this month, your child’s chances of being gravely injured going to and from school are much greater than the chances of a school shooting taking place.
We sometimes seek protection from our fears in ways that put us in greater peril. In responding to the Parkland shooting, we may be doing just that to our kids.
It’s fair to say that Dennis Alexander is a good example of this. Whatever credentials he may have had, the very act of him bringing a gun onto school grounds put his students in greater jeopardy — adding danger to a situation where under normal circumstances there would be none.
Alexander was placed on administrative leave at both his teaching and part-time policing jobs.
Watch KSBW’s report on the story below:
Featured image via screen grab
