The mother of a Deer Park Elementary School child in Texas reportedly brandished and pointed a gun at another mother during drop-off at the school yesterday. Their children were still inside of the two mothers’ vehicles at the time.
Neighbors said it was an altercation started because one of the women involved was mad at the other for the way she was driving in a school zone.
"(She) got out of her car, banged on the windows, said, 'You're speeding in a school zone. You almost ran me over once. You need to start doing better.' And, you know, so one mom's yelling at one mom, and the mom in the car pulls out a gun and says, 'Back off,'" said neighbor Jeanette Renteria.
Someone called police, but no charges were filed. No one was injured.
Exercising your Second Amendment rights over a disagreement at an elementary school sounds dangerous, no? The school sent out this letter to parents yesterday in which the school’s principal Lisa McLaughlin tried to explain to adults with guns how to not act like little children.
Unfortunately, children were in both of the vehicles involved, and students were present in other nearby vehicles as well. No one was injured in the incident. In fact, the weapon was never used. But what should have been a reasonably safe drop-off process quickly became a police investigation.
At our school, teaching students the skills and knowledge they need to be successful in life is our goal and purpose. But we don't just teach language arts or science or mathematics or fine arts. We also teach children the appropriate way to resolve conflicts. It's not unusual for there to be disagreements between students at our school, but we always encourage children to seek a peaceful end to the conflict.
At one time or another, we've all experienced frustration while driving. But, as our students know all too well, it's never a good idea to react when emotions are high. My hope is that we can all look at what happened this morning and reconsider how we deal with disagreements and anger in our lives. Conflicts such as the one that took place this morning have no place at our school. Keeping our schools safe for our children and community is our highest priority, but we can't do it alone. It takes all of us being aware of our surroundings, reporting suspicious activities, and using good judgment and restraint when disagreements arise.
We all deal with frustrations from time to time and some of us have better anger management skills than others. Sadly, it seems like a lot of people who like guns also don’t like managing their anger issues.