There will be no APS graduates on any Red Flag List for gun purchases

Hopefully, one of the consequences of renewed attention to the accessibility of high power semi-automatic rifles with large capacity magazines, will be that closer attention is paid to the criminal records of those who choose to possess them; including public school records.

The hope is that someone with a record of compiling lists of people to kill or rape, will be asked a few questions about those interests before they are allowed to carry, much less purchase such a weapon.

There will be a problem when anyone goes looking for the records of APS students who have behaved in ways that would prevent them from carrying guns. APS keeps no such records.

The simple proof; if the leadership of the APS is asked (by a Journal reporter, for example) to produce a longitudinal record of students who “misbehave” even criminally, they will not for at least two reasons,
1. they cannot because those records were not kept, and
2. they will not produce what records they did keep, because they will tarnish the image that APS spends a million dollars a year trying to create.

School board members and senior administrators would rather that stake and interest holders believe that APS students are under control at school. This though, an impartial audit of the leadership of APS revealed that principals routinely falsified records of criminal activity at their schools in order to protect their image.

The leadership of the APS maintains a publicly funded private police force that are under orders to surrender (some) students who have committed criminal acts over to administrators for an “administrative” rather than criminal solution. The APS police force is certified by no one, certificated by no one, and accountable to no one except the leadership of the APS. And, no records are kept.

Additionally, perhaps more importantly, there are those in the leadership of the APS who believe that creating any kind of a record of students’ (even chronic) misbehavior puts them on a path to prison, and who are making deliberate decisions to thwart data gathering. They are threatening the efficacy Red Flag efforts no matter how otherwise justifiable they might be.

Either the leadership of the APS is maintaining control over students in schools and classrooms or they are not. It is newsworthy either way.

Either the leadership of the APS is keeping records that will be useful in creating Red Flag Lists or they are not. It is newsworthy either way.