FROM THE EDITOR - Politics Can Wait; It's Time to Problem-solve
Today's incident at Lee Hill Elementary School gives us an opportunity to put solving problems before politics.
By Martin Davis
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
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Today’s event at Lee Hill Elementary School, where a third-grade student brought a gun to school in their backpack that discharged in class, should begin with this important realization — no one was hurt.
That’s because the people involved handled the situation with aplomb, according to Spotsylvania school division superintendent Clint Mitchell.
“The staff,” he said in a call with the Advance, “did a great job.”
The details surrounding how the gun discharged, where the student got the gun from, why it was in their backpack, why the gun was loaded, and many more will be answered in coming days and weeks as the Sheriff’s Office and the Spotsylvania school district dig deeper into the particulars.
We should all wait for that investigation to finish before rushing to any conclusions about today’s events.
More important, we should shelve the politics and instead approach this with a problem-solving mindset.
Over the past four years, politics has too often been the tool of choice whatever the matter. Time and again, it’s proven the wrong approach. Libraries; diversity, equity, and inclusion; curriculum; and safety—all of these have been flashpoints over the past half-decade, and they have continually divided the county in bitter, nonconstructive ways.
Today’s event points to several problems that must be addressed.
Undetected guns in schools. Guns making their way into schools is a sad reality. The reasons that have brought us to this point are myriad, but it’s important that we begin by acknowledging the obvious. Today’s event wasn’t a one-off. According to BradyUnited, students carrying firearms into schools is up 150.7% since 2020. The National Center for Education Statistics has long tracked this issue, and it has remained a stubborn problem. And districts from Prince William to Richmond and beyond are looking for solutions.
There are solutions that are nonpolitical. Despite one’s personal feelings about firearms and people’s access to them, we must look for solutions to address this issue now. The most obvious are weapons detection systems. Fredericksburg City Schools introduced them this year. Prince William County introduced them in 2023. Both placed them in high schools and middle schools. Prince William’s program has proven successful; it’s too early to know the score in Fredericksburg. But as implemented in those two districts, today’s issue would not have been avoided.
Education. Whether we have children in schools or not, the community can take action to ensure that people who do own firearms understand the importance of securing them so that they are not taken from the home or picked up by children. (Again, we do not currently know that this is what happened in Spotsylvania today. Nonetheless, an ongoing education campaign about the importance of securing firearms is important for public safety.)
Training. We already ask teachers to do too much. Asking them to deal with potential firearms in schools is something we shouldn’t even have to consider. Yet, we do. Providing reasonable training and ensuring teachers understand safety protocols, as the teacher at Lee Hill apparently did today, is important. Today simply reinforces that reality.
There will be those who want to blame Democrats or Republicans, the superintendent or the parents, the school board or the student.
A full investigation will determine where blame ultimately lies. As a community, it’s important to avoid putting the conclusions before the evidence.
Rather, let’s face the problem — and there is a problem — head on. Fix what we can. And allow our law enforcement professionals to do their job.
Politics can wait.
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When I taught high school, on a day a kid brought a loaded gun to school and thank god was discovered with it before he used it, I asked one of my classes how many of them knew students who carried weapons in their backpacks. A third of them raised their hands.
The parents should be in jail for reckless endangerment of their child. Every other parent should sue them for reckless endangerment of their children.