People who have been to airports, border crossings and many other public facilities likely have seen signs that warn: Don’t even joke about carrying a weapon or committing an act of violence, as all such comments will be taken seriously.
Two La Joya students face disciplinary action after a social media post showed them brandishing weapons on the Palmview High School campus on Tuesday. Some kind of action is appropriate — some things are too serious to joke about.
As students return to school this month, memories remain strong of the May 24 massacre at a Uvalde elementary school that killed 21 students and teachers and wounded 17 others. School officials everywhere are working to improve their own safety measures or entering into agreements with local law enforcement to have more armed officers on campus.
Border Patrol agents killed the shooter in Uvalde after his rampage that lasted more than an hour. Still, the several law enforcement agencies that responded to the shooting have been universally condemned for not responding more quickly, or more strongly.
Unfortunately, despite the immensity of such a violent tragedy, it isn’t surprising that some teenagers haven’t developed the maturity to respect those affected — and those affected include officials and parents everywhere, including the Rio Grande Valley, who now worry about such an event happening at their school, and to their children.
The two students in the La Joya incident were carrying a toy pistol and a machete. Often, people can’t see from a distance that a weapon isn’t real. Had the pair been seen carrying the weapons inside the school, they could have provoked a tragedy, even without firing a shot.
One of the most famous quotes regarding free speech is from Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes: “The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theatre and causing a panic.” The crush of humanity in such a panic has claimed thousands of lives over the years, and easily could be provoked by news that armed people are walking through school halls.
Even trained law enforcement officers can’t easily discern that a gun isn’t real under the high-tension, split-decision circumstances such events create. We need only recall the case a decade ago in which Brownsville police fatally shot a middle-school students who was holding what turned out to be a pellet gun.
At this point the severity of the consequences facing the two La Joya students remains unknown. However, something needs to be done, even if the students think they were just having fun. Parents and the rest of the community need to know that the officials at their schools are prepared to take action if an armed person appears on campus, and that they are not going to take any chances that could prove fatal.
At the same time, the response should serve as a warning to all students: Some things are too serious to joke about. A little fun might not be so harmless if it causes a reaction that can be just harmful as the threat.
At a time when many parents until their children arrive safe from school every day, some jokes just aren’t funny.
