Tamaqua parents file lawsuit over policy to arm teachers
A group of Tamaqua parents filed a lawsuit in Schuylkill County Court on Thursday afternoon alleging Tamaqua Area School District board members exceeded their authority by approving a policy authorizing teachers to carry firearms in school.
Plaintiffs in the lawsuit include Holly Koscak, parent of a high school student; Darrell L. Flack, Jr. and Angela M. Flack, who have three children in the district; and Sara J. Theirer, who has three grandchildren in school. The group is being represented by Philadelphia-based attorneys Martin J. Black and Benjamin McAnaney of Dechert LLP.
Tamaqua’s teacher union has also filed a lawsuit in opposition to the policy. In that case, district solicitor Jeffrey Bowe filed preliminary objections to the lawsuit, arguing that there is “no specific state either authorizing or preventing” in the school code the district from adopting the policy.
CeaseFirePA’s Shira Goodman, plaintiffs in the lawsuit, and members of Tamaqua Citizens for Safe Schools are holding a press conference Friday at noon to announce the filing of the lawsuit at the Tamaqua Railroad Station.
“Parents are worried about the safety of their children,” Goodman, who is a liaison between parents and the lawyers representing them, said on Thursday.
Tamaqua is the first school district in the state to adopt a policy that would allow teachers to carry firearms in school.
At a Nov. 7 school board meeting, parents and community members in the district laid out extensive alternatives to the policy, including better screening of visitors, infrastructure changes, shooter detection systems, and investments in mental health support and threat assessments.
Comments
You wouldn't be considered a candidate to carry, so relax.
If teachers acted a bit more like soldiers and less like snowflakes, kids wouldn't be grabbing at your personal property. You see, it's not about guns.
It's not guns that have destroyed the system of education. It's Bullies, and the biggest loudest bullies are given the pulpit, a bully pulpit. It isn't about guns folks.
Look folks, you need to investigate on your own. Look up the PROMISE Program, it's origins, and how it found it's way into Parkland in the first place. Stop with the gun conversations and look at policies.
Nicholas Cruz was referred to the program in 2013 after he vandalized a bathroom at Westglades Middle School, located just down the road from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. The PROMISE program was the failed concept of the Obama administration and DOJ (Eric Holder). Cruz killed 17 students and wounded 17 more.
The program allows students who commit any of 13 specific misdemeanors at school to avoid getting involved with the criminal justice system. Instead, they attend the alternative school, where they receive counseling and other support. Here was a promising opportunity to put PROMISE's to good use, but Superintendant, Robert Runcie and his staff FAILED!!!
Runcie (check him out) finally admitted in an interview that, “Nikolas Cruz, the shooter had "no connection to the PROMISE program.” In other words, they didn't connect the young man with the needed counseling... oops! Runcie, Holder, and the Sheriff's Department failed Nicholas and the families of Parkland S.D. Feed on that, not the gun.
Look folks, the reason this happened was an angry pissed off kid, despite all these and promising programs, fell through the cracks and exploded. It's not because of the gun.