A Florida suburban middle school teacher observed a student in his classroom showing another student what turned out to be a .45 caliber gun. The student returned it to his book bag from which he had originally removed it as the teacher approached.
Did the teacher run, jump in the air and tackle the student? Did he yell “gun” and tell everyone to get out? Did he throw a book at the student and tell everyone to pile up on him?
The answer is “no” to all of the above. Miami-Dade School Police Lieutenant Robert Asencio shares the story of how this teacher remained calm, moved carefully, and was able to safely separate the student from the book bag and take them both to the office.
In a blog article entitled, “School policing: Amazing actions of a teacher in the face of danger,” written on the web site of the Florida Public Employees Partnership, Ascencio describes the teacher who, “…bravely placed himself in danger to protect his students.”
Read Asencio’s article and you will get a feel for the challenge faced by the teacher, how he calmly and thoughtfully intervened, and how the safety of all children there was preserved. You will also learn how school police did not simply arrest the kid and end it there, but instead discovered a student who had been emotionally, physically and sexually abused.
We hear a lot about the high-profile school shootings that take place. We hear much less often about the potential school shootings (real or accidental) that were averted thanks to the calm and fast thinking actions of our teachers and school support staff.
Like Asencio, I applaud this teacher. You should, too.
Ken Trump
Visit School Security Blog at: www.schoolsecurityblog.com
Follow Ken on Twitter @safeschools
Visit and “Like” Our Facebook Fan Page at: www.facebook.com/schoolsafety
Wow, what a story! Thanks for sending it out, Ken.
It’s great to see a teacher act when given the chance, that is the key ACT.
Contrary to what you think, an active response is just that. This kid was not an active shooter and the teacher acted accordingly. We trust teachers with our kids, they are highly educated, and we all know how much teachers care about their kids.
Kudos to this teacher, nice to know when given options, educators can make good decisions under stress. Taking the decision making cycle in a critical incident, and putting it in the hands of those actually involved sounds very familiar……
It is great to see when a teacher acts reasonably. And to think, he and the students apparently were not trained in a 45 minute workshop to grab some tennis balls or pencils and start throwing them at the kid with the gun, or having the kids in class run toward the person with the gun to grab an arm or leg (while being shot).