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posted by Fnord666 on Saturday March 03 2018, @07:53AM   Printer-friendly
from the mental-issues dept.

The Los Angeles Times reports

After their teacher fires a gun at school, Georgia students use opportunity to challenge Trump's proposal

Jesse Randall Davidson wasn't a stranger, some mysterious threat from the outside. He was a bearded, bespectacled, 53-year-old social studies teacher and the play-by-play announcer for the football games at Dalton High School in northwest Georgia.

But when the teacher brought a gun to school, barricaded himself in his classroom [February 28], and fired a single shot, students quickly recognized that this wasn't just a sad local incident.

Amid national outrage over school shootings--and suggestions by President Trump that schools would be safer if some teachers packed guns--it was a political event.

"my favorite teacher at Dalton high school just blockaded his door and proceeded to shoot", a 16-year-old student named Chondi Chastain tweeted at the National Rifle Assn., earning more than 17,000 retweets. "We had to run out The back of the school in the rain. Students were being trampled and screaming. I dare you to tell me arming teachers will make us safe."

[...] When students came to his door at room 413 during third period--a time his classroom is normally empty--it was locked, and Davidson wouldn't let them in, police said later.

"My brother, who was one door down from the teacher, said he was yelling at his students to 'get the [expletive] out of here'", junior Henry Hansen, 17, wrote in a private message on Twitter.

The principal, Steve Bartoo, tried to unlock the door with a key, but Davidson "slammed the door before I could open it and said, 'Don't come in here, I have a gun'", Bartoo said at a televised news conference.

Bartoo put the school into lockdown mode, and soon after, Davidson "apparently fired a shot from a handgun through an exterior window of the classroom", Dalton police spokesman Bruce Frazier said at a separate news conference. "It did not appear that it was aimed at anybody."

[...] Dalton police, the Whitfield County Sheriff's Office, the Georgia State Patrol, and federal law enforcement agencies all responded to the emergency. "More or less everybody with a badge in the area came running", Frazier said.

After about half an hour, Davidson surrendered and was taken into custody

[...] The Dalton students immediately turned to social media to take issue with Trump's calls to arm teachers.

Heavy.com adds

Records show Davidson has been charged with aggravated assault with a gun, terroristic threats and acts, carrying a weapon in a school safety zone without a license, reckless conduct, disrupting public school, and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. He is being held without bail at the Whitfield County Jail.

[...] Davidson has a history of bizarre medical episodes both at school and outside of school, The Chattanoogan reports.


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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by bradley13 on Saturday March 03 2018, @08:11AM (4 children)

    by bradley13 (3053) on Saturday March 03 2018, @08:11AM (#646928) Homepage Journal

    Geez, talk about throwing a random collection of charges at someone. "Disrupting school"? I suppose so. "Terroristic threats"? Not so sure about that one. What's wrong with charging the guy with one or two obvious charges, and prosecuting those?

    Anyhow, the guy is clearly a fruitcake. And, as usual, we notice just how effective "gun free zones" are: the people you really don't want carrying guns are precisely the people who don't give a sh*t about the rules.

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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 03 2018, @08:43AM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 03 2018, @08:43AM (#646949)

    "Terroristic threats"? Not so sure about that one.

    "Not so sure"? TFS said his demands were "get the fuck out of here" and "don't come in here, I have a gun"! Is that the bar for terrorism now? Looking forward to reclassifying a majority of US criminals, and a sizable number of non-criminals, as terrorists. It's ridiculous, and the ridiculousness is compounded by his "history of bizarre medical episodes".

    Also, "possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony"? The possession and firing was the felony! It's as stupid as the cops that keep arresting people on the single charge: resisting arrest.

    I'm not saying he shouldn't be prosecuted, but this type of stacking of charges makes a travesty of the entire judicial system and the very idea of "rule of law".

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 03 2018, @04:32PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 03 2018, @04:32PM (#647120)

      local pigs around the country use terroristic threat charges for one kid saying through the grape vine that he "is going to kick the shit out of" another kid. my friend had to go to jail over that. the little shit that he "terrorized through the grapevine" deserved to be beat up. he was a sniveling, lying, backstabbing, piece of shit.

    • (Score: 1) by west on Saturday March 03 2018, @07:58PM

      by west (6884) on Saturday March 03 2018, @07:58PM (#647237)

      just saying but most/some charges will not hold up depending on the defense.

      so going for any charge you can ensures that at least one may stick.

      its the prosecutors job to prosecute

      its not immoral for them to try as best they can!
      justice willing, the ones that should stick will be the only ones that do!

      its not the prosecutors job to KNOW which one SHOULD stick!
      the job is to PROSECUTE.

      nothing wrong with this at all!

      the problem in lies in the fact that the judicial system is not infallible or omnipotent and also that humans err. these problems are intractable and they make the actual execution of moral, legal and sound justice a crap shoot. there is no way around it, I am not saying it can't be improved however.

  • (Score: 2) by FakeBeldin on Saturday March 03 2018, @11:07AM

    by FakeBeldin (3360) on Saturday March 03 2018, @11:07AM (#646991) Journal

    And, as usual, we notice just how effective "gun free zones" are:...

    The funny thing about the US is that your "free speech zones" are far more effective than your "gun free zones".