Wrong information on guns carried on school grounds

During the long discussion on carrying weapons at the October 15 board meeting, Supt. Davis said that the two employees (Director and Asst. Director of Emergency Services) were not carrying openly on school grounds. They carried concealed firearms.

Then he said (at 1:05:30), "they did have the authorization to do so", meaning to carry openly.

No, they didn't. South Carolina state law does not allow civilians to carry handguns in the open.

Had the two employees carried openly, they could have been arrested.

Did Supt. Davis mean that he had authorized them to violate state law? That's probably not what he meant.

State guns laws are very specific, technical, and very difficult to understand. Even those who have studied them closely will listen carefully to a question and then try to answer it by what the law really says.

And whether the two employees were even "authorized by law" to carry on school grounds is open to interpretation and to question. Both men may be retired law-enforcement officers. Federal law allows retired (just just former, but retired) officers to carry. But once they take a job, they are no longer "retired".

And I would posit that a retired law-enforcement officer loses his privilege to carry, once he accepts employment, especially in a school, which is, as I understand it, specifically identified as a Gun-Free Zone under Federal law.

A school superintendent cannot grant permission for an employee to break State or Federal laws.

Box cutter? Tool or Weapon?

Want to drive me crazy?

It's a great thing that I could not hear Trustee Shadd mumbling in a low voice at the school board meeting on October 15, when he asked about a box cutter in a shop class. If a teacher has a box cutter in a shop class, does he have a weapon?

And later Teresa Holmes made a refereence to box cutters.

As I saw in the audience, I thought, "I have a weapon right here in my hand." I was holding an EnerGel Liquid Gel Ink writing pen full of blue ink. Is that a weapon?

Are my eyeblasses weapons? Are my hands weapons? My feet? Is a No. 2 pencil a weapon? What about a nail file and a hair clip? What about the buckle on my belt? Heck, what about the belt itself? Or my shoelaces?

The board room Tuesday night was full of weapons!!!

This nonsense drives me crazy.

We have trustees on the school board who apparently cannot discern between a tool and a weapon. Sure, this will anger them to read this. Well, it angered me to hear them waste public time with that drivel.

Yes, a box cutter is a weapon if someone holds it up to my neck and threatens to slice off my head.

No, it is NOT a weapon when used to cut open a box!!!

When Mr. Shadd mentioned knives and said "of a certain length", the staffer seemed to be agreeing. But I don't think the policy refers to length. If a student shows up with his Swiss Army Knife on his belt, he's going to jail.