This week's outrage comes from North Carolina, where an East Wake High School principal, acting with the support of the area superintendent, stopped the school's Marksmanship Team from participating in a decades-old tournament, less than one day before the competition.
The reason? Well, though state law allows firearms education at schools, the county in which the school resides bans firearms from school campuses and prohibits students from carrying firearms on school trips. Apparently, one of East Wake High School's principals, Sebastian Shipp, determined that the policy extended the prohibition to students participating in an off-campus event--namely, the tournament that the 16-member marksmanship and orienteering team had been preparing for--so he barred the team from participating. Area superintendent, Danny Barnes, supported Shipp's decision noting that these kinds of decisions are up to each principal.
Commenting on the policy, Wes Seegars, chairman of the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission said, "I can appreciate the fact they may have a policy, but all the government agencies need to remember, they're there to serve the public. There is something lost in a policy that does not serve the needs of the community."
The decision nullified months of practice by the 16-member marksmanship and orienteering team.
So, we have a time-honored, decades-old tournament that is sponsored by a state agency and supervised by adults certified in firearms safety. A tournament in which students have invested months of disciplined practice. And less than one day before they are due to compete, they are barred from participating due to a very questionable school ruling. That's outrageous.
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