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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I watched the entire trial and I am surprised that I changed my mind on this. The teacher knew about the gun for an hour and a half and didn’t act on it. [b]She just kept pushing it off to the assistant principal.[/b] I think people would be less forgiving if a child would’ve been shot rather than a teacher. I would vote in favor of the assistant principal. Lots of blame to go around but the teacher needs to look in the mirror on this one. The teacher knew for an hour and a half about the gun and didn’t even bother searching his backpack, which was allowed. The AP didn’t show concern either.[/quote]

Pushing it off onto the AP is EXACTLY what teachers are supposed to do. If you (society) wants teachers to be able to search kids' backpacks (and search children's clothing/jackets) whenever they feel they have a need to do so - and trust us to use our judgment -- you need to pass laws that give us immunity when (not if) we guess wrong.

And the teacher really did not "know" there was a gun. When she was in the classroom, teaching and taking her kids to lunch, she knew that the boy JT was angry/upset that morning and had threatened a kid. But in her classroom, no kids told her anything about a gun.

Kids outside the classroom flagged down the reading teacher and told her. Kids on the playground told other teachers. Who told the classroom teacher - out on the playground.

At that point the backpack HAD been searched. Now the question is, is it in his pocket?

The teacher surely was hoping and praying that Admin, the Security, police, someone was coming to search the boy.  She could not, did not, have the legal ability to do so. She was also responsible for the rest of the children in her class.

In hindsight, perhaps she should have sent her class to another room for safety. But these decisions are not easy to make. Regardless, it was NOT her fault. She 100% followed school procedure in this case. [/quote]

They knew about the gun before the class went to recess. The reading teacher was told and questioned the child. There is no way something like that can happen without the classroom teacher knowing. She simply let the experienced long-time reading teacher handle it.

The reading teacher went to make a report to the AP AFTER the child refused her request to search the backpack. Why she didn’t take the bag with her - she didn’t have to search it, she only had to take it up. Carrying a backpack to the office is not the same as searching it - it is not illegal to carry a kid’s backpack. She was clearly afraid of him.

And when her request to search was denied and the AP continued to ignore her, she made her own decision to go against superior orders. So she wasn’t afraid of losing her job or doing something illegal - she was afraid of the kid going berserk and physically attacking her. Which meant she had to wait until he is outside at recess to do it.

As she waited until it was safe to look the gun had been removed. The classroom teacher texted her about the possibility of the gun being in his pocket after kids told her or the lead teacher. At this time multiple adults knew that there is a possibility of a gun being in this kid’s hand.

The lead teacher made a report, the guidance counselor knew and made a report, the reading teacher knew about the entire chain of events, the teacher herself also knew. She is young and inexperienced - that plays a huge role in her inability to make her own decisions without relying on others to help. But in this case, no one came to give her support or guidance. They helped make extra reports to the AP - but when the AP did not show any sign of responding to the events - was there a duty for anyone else to  do more?

“We were only following orders.” I’m not sure that’s what happened. No one told the reading teacher she can’t carry the backpack away and leave it in the office until his parent shows up. She didn’t have to search it if she’s afraid of searching being illegal without permission. She went back and searched but only when she felt she wouldn’t get beat up by that kid.

Counselor made a report and asked the AP to body search and was denied.

That’s fine if he was afraid of getting fired or doing an illegal search. But no one told him he can’t go to the classroom and “walk around” to keep an eye on the kid and provide support??

He could even take the kid out to the hallway and try to “talk” to him because it looks like the situation was becoming more dangerous since this kid now just made violent threats to other kids at recess. This child just made threats to other kids and no one attempts to remove him from the class to talk about what he did or said?

Everyone was waiting for someone else to do something. An entire classroom full of kids and the teacher was in the room with a kid who has a gun. By the time they came in from recess multiple teachers knew about it and other students have reported receiving threats on the playground. The day just keep on rolling??!!

No one thought to get the other children away into another classroom or for 1 adult to take him out of the classroom to “talk” or “take a walk” or pretend to do anything other than simply leaving him inside a classroom full of kids???!!!

His gun apparently jammed and that’s why only the teacher got hurt. Other kids were put at risk by being left in a room with that child. They didn’t get hurt in the end but they had to witness their teacher getting shot and fighting for her life with their own eyes. But their lives were at risk because no one removed the threat or took them away from that classroom (at a time when it was clear to multiple adults that there was a very high possibility of a gun being in a violent kid’s pocket). [/quote]

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