TheeBadOne
Member
WINONA, Minn. - A popular gun-safety course taught in a school when regular classes aren't in session has run into problems with the Winona school district's "zero-tolerance" policy banning firearms in schools.
The problem came to a head on Saturday, Oct. 11, when students, including 12-year-old Nick Ziegeweid, did as they were told and brought their unloaded rifles and shotguns to Winona Middle School.
Instructors thought it important for the students to learn how to handle the equipment that they would take hunting.
But school officials didn't agree. School administrators and instructors met Ziegeweid and about 40 other students outside the school to remind them they couldn't bring their guns inside.
"I think with all that's gone on, for me, I'm OK with them not having the guns," said Debbie Ziegeweid, Nick's mother. "I think it bothered my son more, just because he was ready to learn how to use it."
The School Board's refusal late last month to make an exception for the state-sponsored gun-safety course has sparked passionate debate in Winona.
http://www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/duluthsuperior/news/7064873.htm
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....The Winona school board's decision not to make an exception for the state-sponsored gun-safety course has stirred up a debate among the town's 27,000 residents and school-board officials.
"It's like teaching a math class without a calculator," said Scott Sabotta, the course instructor. "The whole point of the class is to save injury or life. In some ways, our hands have been tied with the decision that they made."
Citing school shootings that have occurred throughout the nation, supporters of the zero-tolerance policy argue that the firearms ban is necessary.
"There needs to be some safety zones," said Sue Brown, a school-board member. "And I think a school district and a school building should be held in higher regard than it is. It's a difficult climate, it's a different day and age. Whatever you can do to restrict, restrict."
But fellow school-board member Larry Laber countered that a school is the ideal location to teach the course. "You go to the National Guard armory, and there's a military atmosphere," he said. "The one thing the school offers that the others can't is a neutral ground."
[url]http://www.jointogether.org/gv/news/summaries/reader/0,2061,567291,00.html[/url]
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My fellow Firearm Safety Instructors tell me that MN has an exemption in State Law allowing Firearm Safety Instruction to be held on school grounds and firearms there for that purpose. What we have here is a School Board injecting it's own control on the issue (which it can leagally, but I find it quite upsetting. Firearm safety has been taught in schools for longer than most people have been alive.) :banghead:
The problem came to a head on Saturday, Oct. 11, when students, including 12-year-old Nick Ziegeweid, did as they were told and brought their unloaded rifles and shotguns to Winona Middle School.
Instructors thought it important for the students to learn how to handle the equipment that they would take hunting.
But school officials didn't agree. School administrators and instructors met Ziegeweid and about 40 other students outside the school to remind them they couldn't bring their guns inside.
"I think with all that's gone on, for me, I'm OK with them not having the guns," said Debbie Ziegeweid, Nick's mother. "I think it bothered my son more, just because he was ready to learn how to use it."
The School Board's refusal late last month to make an exception for the state-sponsored gun-safety course has sparked passionate debate in Winona.
http://www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/duluthsuperior/news/7064873.htm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
....The Winona school board's decision not to make an exception for the state-sponsored gun-safety course has stirred up a debate among the town's 27,000 residents and school-board officials.
"It's like teaching a math class without a calculator," said Scott Sabotta, the course instructor. "The whole point of the class is to save injury or life. In some ways, our hands have been tied with the decision that they made."
Citing school shootings that have occurred throughout the nation, supporters of the zero-tolerance policy argue that the firearms ban is necessary.
"There needs to be some safety zones," said Sue Brown, a school-board member. "And I think a school district and a school building should be held in higher regard than it is. It's a difficult climate, it's a different day and age. Whatever you can do to restrict, restrict."
But fellow school-board member Larry Laber countered that a school is the ideal location to teach the course. "You go to the National Guard armory, and there's a military atmosphere," he said. "The one thing the school offers that the others can't is a neutral ground."
[url]http://www.jointogether.org/gv/news/summaries/reader/0,2061,567291,00.html[/url]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
My fellow Firearm Safety Instructors tell me that MN has an exemption in State Law allowing Firearm Safety Instruction to be held on school grounds and firearms there for that purpose. What we have here is a School Board injecting it's own control on the issue (which it can leagally, but I find it quite upsetting. Firearm safety has been taught in schools for longer than most people have been alive.) :banghead:
