St. Joseph’s Suicide Threat Shoots Another Hole in School Gunslinger Law

The police response to an armed suicide threat at the St. Joseph Indian School in Chamberlain Monday shows more reasons that this year's House Bill 1087, the school gunslinger law, creates unnecessary risks at our schools.

The Chamberlain Police Department was called to St. Joseph’s at 2:21 p.m. after dispatch received a call that a former school employee was on campus threatening to take his own life, Hutmacher said.

“We arrived within about a minute,” Hutmacher said. “And the school went into lockdown.”

Law enforcement spotted the man standing outside his vehicle near the entrance to the school along Main Street. When the man saw officers approaching, he ran away.

Officers pursued the man on foot and in vehicles. He refused to comply with law enforcement and was shot with a stun gun and taken into custody, Hutmacher said [Anna Jauhola, "Allegedly Armed Man Detained After Chamberlain School Incident," Mitchell Daily Republic, 2013.05.14].

Pay attention to what didn't happen here. After calling police, no one in the school had to take any risk other than lock the doors and duck. No one had to pull the trigger on any firearm.

Consider the reaction of St. Joseph's director, Rev. Stephen Hufstetter:

Huffstetter said he’s still a bit shaken by Monday’s incident, as is his staff. He said the students seemed calm afterward because some may not have known the lockdown was real.

“Unfortunately, this is why we practice these things,” Huffstetter said. “We just hope the person who did this is able to get the help he needs” [Jauhola, 2013.05.14].

Would the suicidal former employee have a chance to get the help he needs if St. Joseph's had adopted the philosophy of our state legislators and put guns in the hands of its staff? Would the "school sentinel training course" required by HB 1087 have trained the school gunslingers not just in marksmanship, but in mental health, conflict resolution, and the good sense to use the least force necessary to subdue a perceived threat?

Chamberlain police protected the St. Joseph's students and staff with a swift, non-lethal response. Their effective capture of the potential shooter shows that there are many security steps schools can take before they commit the grave error of bringing guns onto their campuses and authorizing volunteers to play John Wayne around kids.