A Veteran Teacher Remembers

He begins by telling me that he's seen many teachers quoted after these appalling attacks and that most are supporting stricter gun laws.  Chastisement (of me) over, he went on to write -

"I spent 30 years teaching public high school in an urban community long considered 'culturally deprived' which was government politispeak for "a bad place."  I only felt really threatened once in my years of teaching public school.

In my 13th year, a very strong student challenged me after I called him down in the hallway for using profanity.

He told me he would spread my moustache from ear-to-ear.  I started to take off my jacket and necktie and muttered, "I'll just let you try that, young man," but when I looked up, he was fleeing the scene faster than an antelope bolting from a lion and all the while his friend stood there laughing his ass off.

My very first two years of teaching ('72-'73) our school was rife with racial rioting, but as much as they seemingly hated one another, the students always respected teacher authority.

When I was in my 21st year (of teaching) we had two pipe bombs go off in our school.   No one was hurt and only minor damage was done, but we had ATF and FBI federal authorities crawling all over the place.  I never felt threatened at the time because th placement of the bombs made it obvious the bomber(s) weren't intent on harming people, just causing a school cancellation.  The two students responsible were eventually caught by the FBI and arrested.  Neither ever returned to the school.

When I was dean of students, we were alerted by a student that one of his buddies had a gun at school.  We thought he was carrying it, but it turned out the "gun" was in the trunk of his car - a .12-gauge shotgun he used to shoot skeet and trap at the local conservation club.  Having grown up in a more rural setting of the early '60s, I remember seeing friends pickups with gun racks and shotguns parked in the school lot so I wasn't all that concerned.  The boy's father came and picked up the gun and that ended the situation.  That was all 15 years or more ago.

Honestly?  I never felt as if my life was in danger ... back then.  Today with the general apathy of society to provide adequate school security, the court mandate that violent children are still entitled to attend public school without regard for the consequences, and the lack of parental control over many teenagers in urban settings, I am glad I'm not still in the public schools teaching.  I would add that one of my former student teachers was teaching at Columbine Middle School when the shooting spree occurred at the high school and I know she suffered some PTSD thereafter."

Doug Vermillion of Anderson, IN.