Weapons in School

Hello everyone,

With permission from the original teacher, I'm forwarding to all of you an exchange about weapons on campus.

For general information: There are all sorts of helps on campus for students that may be traumatized by either on- or off-campus events. If you have students that have been traumatized by an event, send them to their counselor, and the counselor will facilitate other interventions if necessary. If you have a large number of students, and you feel that you need support helping them deal with a traumatic event, contact any administrator, and the administrator will help you get an intervention team.

Jeff Combe

The exchange (slightly edited):

>Sent: Tue 2/20/2007 4:26 PM
>To: Combe, Jeffery
>Subject: Re: FW: FW: Daily email: Eyes in the back of your head
>
>
>Jeff-
>
>I heard from one of my students that a loaded gun was brazenly displayed during a class with a sub. I wasn't sure that I believed my student, so I checked with the Dean's Office and heard that the rumor was true. Isn't this information that the Dean's Office should share with the teachers?
>
>Thanks,

---------- Original Message -------------
Date: Wed, 21 Feb 2007 10:20:57 -0800
From: "Combe, Jeffery"


>In general, teachers cannot be kept from such information.
>
>I'm not sure why the dean's office didn't openly tell everyone this information. There could be a number of good reasons; I can think of several off the top of my head why I wouldn't tell everyone.
>
>Truthfully speaking, you can assume that weapons are periodically brought onto campus and that the entire campus does everything possible to both prevent them and to make sure that, when they are brought onto campus, they are promptly removed. It's a blessing in disguise that the student stupidly thought that the gun could be displayed because there was a sub; that means that the student was caught and the gun was confiscated (eventually). It's frightening sometimes to think that there are weapons like that around, but it's a reality of today's world, and the best way to deal with it is to report as soon as safely possible.
>
>If the student is back in your class, you should follow up with the deans to see why; my guess is that the student is in the process of being expelled from the district, which is what is supposed to happen in a case like that.
>
>
>Jeff Combe

---

Sent: Wed 2/21/2007 11:21 AM
To: Combe, Jeffery
Subject: Thanks for the reply

The gunslinger in question wasn't my student, so I don't know what happened to him. My student told me about the incident because he felt it had impaired his ability to do well on a test in my class.

If you feel this is an important issue, feel free to bring it up for the group.

Thanks,

COMBE: While it's possible that your student was just giving an excuse for an off day, I would still take the student's complaint of impairment seriously in a case like this. Send the student to the counselors and let them assess how badly the student is trauamatized. You might be able to work out a reasonable way to either allow the student to retake the test, or grade the test on a different scale.