"FORT MYERS, Fla. - A 16-year-old Cypress Lake High School student, who wrestled a loaded revolver away from a teen threatening to shoot, is being punished.
The student grappled the gun away from the 15-year-old suspect on the bus ride home Tuesday after witnesses say he aimed the weapon point blank at another student and threatened to shoot him.
The student, who Fox 4 has agreed not to identify and distort his voice because he fears for his safety, says there's "no doubt" he saved a life by disarming the gunman. And for that he was suspended for three days."................
I had the pleasure of meeting with ZHawke yesterday and discussing this topic of school safety and the subject of involving our older school kids in safety programs came up and is one that he and his wife adamantly, and rightly, support. This boy did the right thing, possibly saved a life, and should be rewarded; unfortunately, our school admins and staff seem to have gotten into a mode of thinking that kids, and parents for that matter, should not be involved (they are in the way? they are a liability? they are uncontrollable?). That's just dumb - the kids are right there in the middle of incidents, they are perfectly capable of making the right decisions, and taking the right actions.
Instead of punishing this boy for getting involved, and discouraging teen participation in learning emergency management skills, procedures, and policies, we should be actively recruiting and encouraging them to participate. Want to solve a generation of apathy and lack of self-responsibility? Get them to take a role, be responsible for younger kids in a building right next door, know the procedures for each type of emergency, be it an active shooter, a wildfire, or other natural disaster, and actively help. Build a sense of community, and you won't have kids growing up who don't help their elderly neighbors, people who refuse to report a rape that they hear because they "just don't want to get involved", or neighborhoods continuing to do nothing about mitigating fire dangers because "no one else is bothering".
"Now, more than ever, the illusions of division threaten our very existence. We all know the truth: more connects us than separates us. But in times of crisis the wise build bridges, while the foolish build barriers. We must find a way to look after one another as if we were one single tribe.” -King T'Challa, Black Panther
The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it. ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is. ~Winston Churchill
Good point SC. Too often in this society, there is a tendency to withdraw, being a good Samaritan is frowned on. What is the student teacher ratio at schools, 30-1? Students are just more likely to be places where teachers and staff aren't.
9/11 would have gone a lot differently if all the passengers had got involved.
Thomas Sowell: There are no solutions, just trade-offs.
