Austin’s Daily Commentary – August 17, 2023

Austin: [00:00:00] First, a few compliments before the criticisms. The staff and faculty at Josey High School are to be commended for their actions yesterday in the wake of the chaos. You know, they train for things like this. There are drills that they go through with their plans, how to handle an emergency like they had yesterday at the school. You never know what's going to happen, though, until those plans are actually put into place.

And it sounds like the drills that they've worked on and the the situation was handled as professionally as it could possibly be. The students were in good hands. The parents were reassured as best as they possibly could be. So, again, congratulations to Josey and many thanks to the adults at the school that really made yesterday's terrible experience at least survivable, so to speak.

Now, the criticisms, the decision to cancel class today at Josey and Murphey? Hideous. Now, what should be happening in classes right now at Josey High School and at Murphey Middle School? Is the teachers and the faculty beating it in the heads of the student? Exactly how bad that kid who decided to bring a gun to school yesterday has ruined his life.

Now, keep in mind, this is not a tragedy like we've had at Columbine or others where, you know, mad, psychotic young people showed up with murder on their minds. This was one kid who happened to have a gun with him and he got into a beef with another kid and made a bad decision. That doesn't warrant shutting two schools down for two full days. Absolutely not. No.

What should be happening again is the kids ought to have their butts in the classroom hearing every minute for the next at least a couple of days, exactly how bad that idiotic kid who chose to bring the gun to school has ruined his life, has made their life at school a living hell for a couple of days, potentially canceling athletic events. All kinds of ramifications going on. Again, put it in their face exactly how much trouble this kid's in and the fact that his life is essentially over as far as high school goes. Maybe that will help curb the next attack or the next decision to bring a gun to school. Certainly couldn't hurt. Richmond County do better. And that's the comment, I'm Austin Rhodes AM 580/95.1 FM News Talk WGAC.