HomeMy WebLinkAboutPrincipal who detained school shooter in ’90s is against arming teachers - Toronto Star - 02/21/2018 - Toronto Star - 02/21/20182/22/2018 Principal who detained school shooter in '90s is against arming teachers I Toronto Star
colleagues,This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To order presentation -ready copies of
Toronto Star content for distribution to
permissions/licensing, please #
armingo to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com
Principal who detained school
shooter in 'gos is against
teachers
1 former assistant /saysr movement f
# #
ns to school staff, which has
been gaining ground rapidly since the Parkland , last week,w
Joel Myrick, a former assistant principal who detained a gunman in a 1997
school shooting, says the idea of arming teachers is misguided, and that there's
no reason for someone to own an AR -15, the • T #un i
in last week's
Parkland,
. 4 • shooting. r
#
https://www.thestar.com/news/world/2018/02/21 /princi pal -who -detained -school -shooter -i n-90s-is-aga inst-arm ing-teachers. html 1/6
2/22/2018 Principal who detained school shooter in '90s is against arming teachers I Toronto Star
By STEPHANIE SAUL The New York Times
Wed., Feb. 21) 2o18
Even before a gunman opened fire at a Florida school last week, killing 17, a national
effort had been underway to arm and train teachers and administrators to defend
against mass shootings.
That effort has gained momentum in recent days. Legislators have moved to permit
concealed weapons in schools. Sheriffs offices have offered to train school staff
But one assistant high school principal who survived a school shooting — after loading
his Colt .45 Pistol, then chasing and detaining the suspect at gunpoint — says the idea is
misguided.
After a gunman killed 17 people, Florida students are heading to the state capital to press
for gun law changes
Trump proposes arming teachers and staffing schools with military veterans in meeting
with massacre survivors
Florida shooting survivors confront state law -makers in Tallahassee, demand action
"Teachers have to teach and that's what they should be doing," said Joel Myrick, the
former assistant principal ata high school in Mississippi. "It doesn't matter what a
pistolero you are, ort ink you are, you don't need to be in school in charge of protecting
children."
Before Columbine, Sandy Hook or Stoneman Douglas — indeed, before school shootings
became devastatingly routine — there was Pearl High School, near Jackson, Miss.
Myrick, 56, remembers the day clearly — Oct. 1, 1997 — as well as the exact time the first
shot rang out, 8:o6 a.m., but it is still a tough topic for him to discuss. He had acute
stress for about six months afterward. Nightmares. Misery, he said.
"That's one of the first things I thought about when I heard about Florida. Thousands of
people whose life will never be the same," said Myrick, a longtime educator who now
teaches polymer science at a technical high school in Hancock County, Miss. "It kind of
exhausts me to talk about it."
https://www.thestar.com/news/world/2018/02/21/principal-who-detained-schooI-shooter-in-90s-is-against-arming-teachers.htm1 2/6
2/22/2018 Principal who detained school shooter in '90s is against arming teachers I Toronto Star
At Pearl High, the gunman was Luke Woodham, a iL6-year-old student who woke up,
stabbed his mother to death, then came to campus carryia .30-30 lever-ace
tion rifl
ng,
traditionally used for killing deer.
Myrick was
en
crossina school commons wh
g he heard the first shot, immediatel
recognizing it as gunfire. When Woodham shot a student in the gut, then turned
reload his gun, Myrick ran to his truck, where he kept a pistol. I
"I've always carried one since I started driving," Myrick said. "I always kept a gun
Itistol of some kind in my truck. Unloaded, stowed away. Not ready to fire."
He loaded and took aim at Woodham, but did not fire out of fear of hitting someone in
the background. "I knew not to shoot because the backstop was not safe," he said. "I
didn't just go blasting away."
After seeing Myrick pointing his gun, Woodham retreated from campus, of in his car
and began to drive away. As Myrick ran after him on foot, the car spun out and came to a
Stop 20 steps away from Myrick. He had his gun trained on Woodham when the police
arrived.
Two students, including Woodham's former girlfriend, were killed and seven others
injured. Woodham is serving a life sentence at the Mississippi State Penitentiary.
Despite Myrick's firm stance against arming faculty members, he has long advocated
placing trained personnel, possibly retired law enforcement officers, in every school, as a
deterrent. "We protect our banks that way," he said. "We protect things we love. America
protects things it loves. We don't care if it's expensive."
Myrick said he was nota member of the National Rifle Association. "And not because I
don't think the Second Amendment is important, but there's got to be some common
sense," he said.
Grief and shock after school shootings have long given way to fierce debates over gun
control and firearms in schools. But calls to arm teachers grew especially loud after the
2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., where 20 first -
grade children and six staff members were killed.
Trump suggests arming teachers with concealed weapons
https://www.thestar.com/news/world/2018/02/21/principal-who-detained-schooI-shooter-in-90s-is-against-arming-teachers.htm1 3/6
2/22/2018 Principal who detained school shooter in '90s is against arming teachers I Toronto Star
M
U.S. President Donald Trump says he's considering backing proposals to
promote concealed carrying of weapons by trained school employees to
respond to campus shootings.
An NRA task force recommended in 2013 that schools increase their police presence,
install security guards and designate staff members — including teachers and
administrators — to be armed and trained. In introducing the NRA recommendations to
reporters, Asa Hutchinson, now the Arkansas governor, invoked the Pearl High School
shooting and Myrick.
The task force also suggested that states relax restrictions on who can carry guns at
school, an idea that is gaining support in a number of states.
The American Federation of Teachers, an education trade union, has opposed training
teachers and other school personnel — an idea that has also taken hold in Missouri —
saying it would not keep children safe but instead flood schools with more guns.
An Ohio group, the Buckeye Firearms Association, has trained 1,300 school personnel in
that state alone® The group's program, called Faster Saves Lives, is spreading to 11 other
states.
Dean Rieck, executive director of the association, said the idea for Faster Saves Lives
began about five years ago, after Sandy Hook.
"In Ohio, people thought we were nuts to suggest this," he said. But five years later,
schools are contacting the organization asking for the training, he said. The group has
held classes in 76 of 88 Ohio counties, he said, with some schools requesting only
trauma first-aid training.
https://www.thestar.com/news/world/2018/02/21/principal-who-detained-schooI-shooter-in-90s-is-against-arming-teachers.htm1 4/6
2/22/2018 Principal who detained school shooter in '90s is against arming teachers I Toronto Star
Participants in the gun training are school personnel who already have concealed -carry
permits.
"It puts very well-trained concealed -carry people inside the school," Rieck said. "If
something happens, they're able to respond faster. That's the entire point oft e
program."
Melissa Cropper, president of the Ohio Federation of Teachers and a former teacher,
disagreed. "I think it masks what the real problem is," she said. "It places an unfair
burden on teachers. Let's talk about what type of guns should not be available to
people."
That was a topic Myrick, who vividly recalls the damage that a relatively slow lever -
action rifle caused on a high school campus, wanted to discuss, too. "If Luke Woodham
had an AR -15, he probably would have killed 20 people instead of two," he said. "There's
not a soul on the planet who needs an AR -15 except military."
N
i:YF MIT% F TITM I&7 I 117RIM15,
miedia competitor
W"
Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved.
Republication or distribution of this content is expressly prohibited without the prior written
https://www.thestar.com/news/world/2018/02/21/principal-who-detained-schooI-shooter-in-90s-is-against-arming-teachers.htm1 5/6
2/22/2018 Principal who detained school shooter in '90s is against arming teachers I Toronto Star
https://www.thestar.com/news/world/2018/02/21/principal-who-detained-schooI-shooter-in-90s-is-against-arming-teachers.htm1 6/6