At the Ann Arbor Public Schools Board of Education Governance meeting on Monday, March 16, the Trustees who serve on the Governance committee confirmed the clear message stated by the Board of Education at last Wednesday’s meeting – they do not want guns on our school campuses.
To ensure the safety and well being of our students, staff, and visitors, the Governance committee is drafting and presenting to the Board for consideration at the next Regular Board Meeting a policy that may result in the declaration of all AAPS properties as Weapon Free Zones.
The Board believes that the presence of weapons at school creates a disruption to ensuring a supportive, productive and positive educational environment for our students, staff, parents and visitors during the school day and at all school sponsored events and activities.
Michigan law authorizes school districts to exercise considerable power to ensure proper operation of their schools according to the Revised School Code. In order to educate students, the primary mission of a public school, the safety and welfare of students while at school or a sponsored activity, is paramount.
The Ann Arbor Public Schools has experienced disruptions for students, staff, and other participants when individuals open carry on district property, and as a result, AAPS will not allow weapons on district property, at events on campus or any school sponsored activities.
Public School Districts may restrict the exercise of certain constitutional rights, so long as those restrictions are reasonably related to legitimate educational concerns such as causing disruption to the educational campus, activity or event.
This policy will exclude the presence of official law enforcement on any AAPS property.
Please, lets keep the focus on our students.
As a parent of two aaps kids, I am vehemently against the schools being classified as “gun free zones”. At a minimum, there should be a principal and teachers who are willing to be trained and licensed who are allowed to carry on all school property. Our kids are sitting ducks for those who do not follow the law in the first place, to come in and make havoc, killing as many as they can in the time it would take police to arrive on the scene. Frankly, I don’t think people’s discomfort with firearms should trump the safety of our kids. If the school wants to hire armed guards to take out a shooter, which I think is the dumber and costlier answer here, then fine, otherwise people who’ve been trained and gotten licenses should not be restricted. Maybe there should be some education done for the community on the training one must receive to merit licensing.
I am a parent of two (next year three) AAPS students. My kids would not be afraid, or intimidated, by a holstered gun. Similarly, they would not be afraid or intimidated by interracial dating, gay marriage, or women voting. All of these were (and continue to be) opposed out of an unfounded fear of the consequences.
I wonder if that student, who feels that they want to inflict harm upon those who have caused perceived or actual insult or bullying towards them, will stop themselves at the door of our schools and say, “Wait! I don’t want to be a disruption.”
We are trying to regulate the behavior of law-abiding citizens to affect the actions of criminals or those who wish ill upon others by harmful means.
This is not the answer to the culture of fear that permeates our society today.
I was at the event where this situation occurred and the sad reality is that both parties are at fault and now the only thing ruined is liberty and the proper education of children.
The adult open carrying his weapon was fully within his rights to do so regardless of your personal “feelings” about the situation.
The parent who initially made the complaint made so based on no threat and a simple observation of the weapon and further exemplified the ignorance of the majority of Ann Arbor residents surrounding the legality of open carry.
The staff who made the sweeping, embarrassing announcement during the event of the situation, which, one again was completely legal, should be fired for causing panic in an otherwise sedate environment. (It’s interesting that the article makes no mention about this part of the activity playing in on the night’s events… it also does not mention at all that Ann Arbor Police who arrived on scene informed all involved that no laws were broken)
While everyone has their own personal/emotional opinions of guns and their place in schools, and society in general, all need to remember that this person open carrying was 100% legally in-the-right. And every time you appoint a leader to abolish a constitutionally afforded right you destroy liberty, the foundation of this once-great country.
I’m ashamed that so many of my fellow Ann Arborites who are supposedly educated people continue to act in an ignorant, uneducated, panic-induced, emotional manner.
Why not be armed at a school meeting? This public, taxpayer-funded property where we teach our children about our escape from tyranny, the founding of our nation, our rights, freedoms, and values, is this place somehow outside the scope of the Bill of Rights? At this public assembly, are any other rights forbidden there? Free speech, religion, press, self-incrimination? Maybe abolition or women’s suffrage is not allowed on the campuses of our public institutions?
What if this is a school meeting that I must attend? What if I work in a violent part of town where I fear for my safety, and I have to stop at the school meeting on the way home? What if my kid’s school is in a bad neighborhood? I carry my gun all day, I should take it out in the school parking lot to lock in my trunk, maybe cause the same reaction there? I should lock it in my trunk, where I can’t vouch for its security as well as I can when it is inside my waistband? Then I should get it out of the trunk and re-holster it in the school parking lot?
Firearms discharge when they are manipulated in a very specific manner, and in rare instances, that happens unintentionally as they are being handled for reasons other than practice or self defense. The less a firearm is manipulated, the less the danger of unintentional discharge. Introducing additional cycles of manipulation in the day increase the odds of an unintentional discharge.
And what is so repulsive about a kid seeing a gun? Jesus, they’re bombarded with them day and night in movies and video games in glorified bloodbaths that some notable anti-gun hypocrites make millions off of. I don’t understand why it should be so disturbing for a kid to see a responsible adult with a firearm that is doing what the overwhelming majority of firearms in the US do every day – nothing.
I was at the event where this situation occurred and the sad reality is that both parties are at fault and now the only thing ruined is liberty and the proper education of children.
The adult open carrying his weapon was fully within his rights to do so regardless of your personal “feelings” about the situation.
The parent who initially made the complaint made so based on no threat and a simple observation of the weapon and further exemplified the ignorance of the majority of Ann Arbor residents surrounding the legality of open carry.
The staff who made the sweeping, embarrassing announcement during the event of the situation, which, one again was completely legal, should be fired for causing panic in an otherwise sedate environment. (It’s interesting that the article makes no mention about this part of the activity playing in on the night’s events… it also does not mention at all that Ann Arbor Police who arrived on scene informed all involved that no laws were broken)
While everyone has their own personal/emotional opinions of guns and their place in schools, and society in general, all need to remember that this person open carrying was 100% legally in-the-right. And every time you appoint a leader to abolish a constitutionally afforded right you destroy liberty, the foundation of this once-great country.
I’m ashamed that so many of my fellow Ann Arborites who are supposedly educated people continue to act in an ignorant, uneducated, panic-induced, emotional manner.
Why not be armed at a school meeting? This public, taxpayer-funded property where we teach our children about our escape from tyranny, the founding of our nation, our rights, freedoms, and values, is this place somehow outside the scope of the Bill of Rights? At this public assembly, are any other rights forbidden there? Free speech, religion, press, self-incrimination? Maybe abolition or women’s suffrage is not allowed on the campuses of our public institutions?
What if this is a school meeting that I must attend? What if I work in a violent part of town where I fear for my safety, and I have to stop at the school meeting on the way home? What if my kid’s school is in a bad neighborhood? I carry my gun all day, I should take it out in the school parking lot to lock in my trunk, maybe cause the same reaction there? I should lock it in my trunk, where I can’t vouch for its security as well as I can when it is inside my waistband? Then I should get it out of the trunk and re-holster it in the school parking lot?
Firearms discharge when they are manipulated in a very specific manner, and in rare instances, that happens unintentionally as they are being handled for reasons other than practice or self defense. The less a firearm is manipulated, the less the danger of unintentional discharge. Introducing additional cycles of manipulation in the day increase the odds of an unintentional discharge.
And what is so repulsive about a kid seeing a gun? Jesus, they’re bombarded with them day and night in movies and video games in glorified bloodbaths that some notable anti-gun hypocrites make millions off of. I don’t understand why it should be so disturbing for a kid to see a responsible adult with a firearm that is doing what the overwhelming majority of firearms in the US do every day – nothing.
We support your courageous policy. Thank you for
rising to the challenge. These are difficult times.
You have the gratitude and support of the majority of
our community.
AAPS has my complete support in this matter. If any individual believes themselves to be in such peril on our schools’ properties that they require a firearm to protect themselves, they can avoid those properties.
Thank your for the unequivocal stance against guns in schools. Fully support the school district on this matter.