Two principals in widely separated states tried to use police against parents with gun permits. The good news: both principals ended up on the losing side when the parents refused to fold and took them to court. In the most recent case, the principal at Stratton Elementary School in Arlington, Massachusetts contacted police after the father showed the principal his gun permit. Not his gun…his permit. The father had come to talk to the principal about a drawing the son had made . . .
The principal said the boy had drawn a phallic symbol, but 40-year-old Robert Goodwin said his son had actually drawn a gun similar to one he’d seen in ‘Despicable Me.’
Goodwin then reportedly took out his gun permit and the principal notified police.
The police charged Goodwin with threatening the principal. And that wasnt all:
Officers later went to his home where they took away a hunting rifle; his gun license has also been suspended.
Under oath, the principal admitted that he did not feel threatened and the charges were dropped. There is no mention as to whether the rifle was returned or the gun permit restored.
By itself, this is a noteworthy story. A principal using the police to harass a gun owner. It reminded me of another story out of Georgia that had a similar theme. The principal there had contacted the police to ban the parent in question from school because she had a picture of her carry permit on her Facebook page.
In what I’d call a severe case of overreacting, Army veteran Tanya Mount was banned from her disabled daughter’s elementary school after she posted a photo of her concealed weapons permit online.
The mother, who often volunteered at the school, said she was approached by a police officer near campus one day and warned that Principal Janina Dallas had filed a “no trespass order” against Mount.
Tanya Mount transferred her daughter to a different school. The principal later claimed that the permit was not the reason for banning Ms. Mount from the school. A settlement was reached according to wrdw.com:
Tanya Mount said she’ll receive $1,000 and an undisclosed amount for legal expenses.
Taken separately, these two cases might be dismissed as isolated incidents. Together they reinforce the idea of schools as intolerant, politically correct bastions of citizen disarmament orthodoxy. How many of these cases exist in which the victim with the permit didn’t have the courage or wherewithal to fight the system in the courts? How many of these cases never make the news because most police have more sense? I would appreciate any information about other cases.
©2014 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
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