Dalton High School Students Are Speaking Out on Twitter After a Teacher Fires a Gun

Yesterday a teacher at Dalton High School in Georgia was arrested after he barricaded himself inside a classroom and fired a handgun out the window, according to police. Thankfully, nobody was injured by the gunshot, though one student sprained her ankle while running away. The 53-year-old teacher would not let students into his room during a planning period and when the principal attempted to enter with a key, he fired a shot from his handgun out the window sending the school into lockdown. Police spokesman Bruce Frazier said, “It certainly seemed like he didn’t have any intention to harm anybody else.” After about 30 to 45 minutes, he surrendered to police.

The incident comes two weeks after the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School—and on the day that those students first returned to class. Over the past 14 days, the conversation around gun control has only gotten louder and louder. President Trump has, on multiple occasions, floated the idea of arming some teachers as a method of increasing safety in schools. This has been largely derided by teachers, students, law enforcement, and a large swath of the population. And now the issue has the students of Dalton High School lending their voices to the cause, perhaps learning from #NeverAgain student activists like Emma Gonzalez and Cameron Kraft at Stoneman Douglas. They are taking to Twitter en masse to tell us how bad the idea of arming teachers is, especially now that they’ve experienced it firsthand. One boldly wrote, “I dare you to tell me arming teachers will make us safe.”

https://twitter.com/_omg_chondi_/status/968911408544010241

shots were fired at dalton high school today. by a teacher. if you still believe teachers should be armed, you truly do not care about students’ well being

— coming back?? (@pocketgrls) February 28, 2018

I’m a Dalton High School student. Please don’t tell me a damn thing about arming teachers. Please don’t tell me that I don’t know what the hell I’m talking about.

— hillary (@idkhillary) February 28, 2018

The students are also trying to get ahead of the “conspiracy theorist” crowd who claimed that the Stoneman Douglas students were “crisis actors” and that their tragedy was not real. Said another, “[W]hat happened at my school is not okay. dalton high school should not be another number, that man is my teacher and not a conspiracy, this is a real problem, a real reason to talk about gun control, a real reason to provide a better place for me and my friends.”

https://twitter.com/demurevogue/status/968919854295248896

I’m a Dalton High School student. You can’t tell me that what happened today is fake. You can’t call what happened today a conspiracy. You weren’t there and don’t know the fear I had. To call my feelings fake and the ones of my fellows students is a joke. I was there you weren’t.

— Evelyne (@eve_so1is) February 28, 2018

I’m a dalton high school student and that shit was scary as hell. Anyone who says these things are staged is an idiot. Arming teachers is not a good idea. I was at lunch w ab 300 other students and that was horrible.

— David From Colombia (@DavidFrmColmbia) February 28, 2018

what happened at my school is not okay. dalton high school should not be another number, that man is my teacher and not a conspiracy, this is a real problem, a real reason to talk about gun control, a real reason to provide a better place for me and my friends.

— b“rat #1”ianca (@biancamoon_) February 28, 2018

Once again, the young people of our country are speaking loudly and directly about this issue and we absolutely must listen—not just for them but for ourselves. One thing is for sure, the March for Our Lives later this month is sure to be something big.