SCHOOL EMPLOYEE HANDGUN TRAINING GOES BANG…OUCH

Maybe schools are actually safer without armed teachers and janitors.

VAN SCHOOL DISTRICT: VOTES TO ARM SOME EMPLOYEES, ONE OF WHOM GETS SHOT DURING TRAINING SESSION
By Richard Connelly

Houston Press Hair Balls
February 28, 2013

The East Texas school district for the town of Van watches the news (Fox, we're guessing) and they know that it's time to arm themselves against the hordes of shooters trying to attack schools everywhere.

So the school board voted last month to arm some employees, such as janitors, so they could go all Dirty Harry and nip any crazed shooter's actions in the bud.

"By approving this policy, the board addressed concerns about effective and timely response to emergency situations at schools including invasion of the schools by an armed outsider, hostage situations, students who are armed and posing a direct threat of physical harm to themselves or others, and similar circumstances," the district said in a prepared statement.

Sounds like a best-laid plan for either mice or men. But as often happens with such plans, it went awry.

At one of the first training sessions designed for specific employees to get a concealed handgun license, an accident happened and an employee got shot in the leg.

He's a maintenance worker and at last report is in fair condition with non-life-threatening injuries, KLTV reports.

If the incident caused any uncertainty in your thinking about the wisdom of the gun plan, you're not VISD superintendent Don Dunn. The arming will proceed as planned.

The district issued a statement:

__At the conclusion of the CHL training on February 27, 2013, one certified person stayed for private instruction with the instructor and had a mechanical malfunction with his weapon. With the assistance of the instructor, the malfunction was addressed, but the gun misfired and the bullet ricocheted coming back to strike the VISD employee in the left leg.

__The VISD employee was attended to at the scene and transferred to Tyler for further treatment. The injury is not life threatening or disabling. Because of privacy and security issues we cannot make any further statement.