I’m not sure if this should fall under “Reasons We Homeschool” or “Only Ones.”
A 60-year-old high school teacher in Virginia thought it would be a good idea to line up the students in his welding class and shoot at them with a blank-firing pistol.
No, I’m not making that up. Reports are here, here, and Google News here.
This is just stunning in the stupidity of it all. The pistol belonged to the criminal justice program at the school. It’s not clear if Manuael Ernest Dillow had permission from the CJ department to have the gun, although I’m not sure why he would have it. What is clear is that Dillow just wasted his teaching career. There’s no way he can talk his way out of this. The administration seems to have had no clue this was going to happen, so it probably wasn’t a planned event.
What’s more disturbing to me is that in a high school just 100 miles from Virginia Tech and just days after the 5-year anniversary of the VT shootings, when someone starts shooting a gun at a bunch of people in a school, no one attacked the shooter. No one ran. No one went for help.
I know some people are going to say “But these are just kids! What do you expect them to do?”
I expect anyone, anywhere to fight back when attacked to the best of their ability.
I expect us to quit teaching our kids that fighting is wrong, and that defending yourself is bad, and that they should just give the bad man what they want, and he’ll go away. What if the bad man wants your life?
I expect people to take responsibility for their personal safety.
Is that too much to expect?
Share your thoughts!