Teacher Brings Weapons To School; Charged
In most parts of the country, teachers and other school staff are not allowed to bring deadly weapons into the school premises. And I am sure the rationale is pretty obvious. I do remember a piece of news going around some time last year that a school district in Texas was allowing their teachers to bring guns, however. The idea was that they have to have some means of protection in case of an emergency.
It may be so in Texas (that’s Texas!), but at Whitfield Career Academy, teachers are still not exempt from that prohibition. So when David Lewis Bolt, a 54-year-old teacher at the school was reported to have threatened his co-workers, and a knife and loaded .380 caliber semi-automatic pistol was found on him, he got in trouble.
What exactly happened? The Daily Citizen reports:
The sheriff’s office was called at 4:37 p.m. on Monday by school officials about threats to employees at the school. Detective Wayne Headrick asked Bolt if he would agree to be searched and Bolt agreed, according to an incident report. Headrick found a lockblade knife with a blade longer than two inches in Bolt’s boot.
“When the call came in it appeared that (Bolt) had made a generalized comment, not to someone close to him, but to a group of individuals,” said Maj. John Gibson with the sheriff’s office. “It was perceived by someone as a threat, but there were no children around.”
After Bolt agreed to have his Jeep Rubicon searched in the school parking lot, Headrick found the pistol between the passenger seat and the console.
It is interesting to note that his “threat” was to fellow workers, and that it seemed to be a “generalized comment,” which was interpreted as a threat by one person. Since no details about the “threat” has been released, I can’t help but wonder what it is he said exactly.
In any case, that is really beside the point. The point is that there is an existing law that disallows teachers to bring weapons to school. There is such a thing as “school safety zone,” which covers 1,000 feet from the school property. The teacher broke the law and he is paying for it. I cannot help but wonder if it has any bearing on the case whatsoever, but he did not take out the weapons from his car. Perhaps he had it on him for safety when he is on the road, outside of the school?
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Posted on April 1st, 2009 by Deborah J Thomas
Filed under: Administrators, News, People Involved, School Safety Issues, Security, Shootings, Violence
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