School board says 'no' to letters for trapshooting
By Douglas Burns
Daily Times HeraldCarroll, IA Carroll Community School District Board members Monday night said a proposal from local trapshooting enthusiasts clearly runs afoul of the district’s zero-tolerance policy on guns.
Advocates of trapshooting were looking to get recognition of the sport for varsity letters at Carroll High School. School officials applauded efforts of volunteers working with kids, and board member Jerry Fleshner went so far as to say he would have considered participating in the sport had it been offered when he was a student at Carroll High School.
But Superintendent Rob Cordes said modern school policies on guns on campuses would create a dilemma: the school could be faced with the possibility that it would award a varsity letter to a student who it then has to expel for possession of a gun.
Cordes said that if a student had a gun in his or her trunk to take to trapshooting competitions, and the vehicle was in the high school parking lot, the board policy is clear: the student would be expelled for at least one calendar year.
“That scares me,” Cordes said.
And there’s no way to eliminate that possibility, he said.
“I’m not sure you can ever get rid of that,” Cordes said. “I think that’s putting a student in an extremely bad position.”
Board member LaVern Dirkx agreed, saying he doesn’t want to be forced into expelling well-intentioned kids with a policy that necessarily is strict.
“I would hate to have that on my mind knowing we supported this,” Dirkx said. “I just think we’re asking for a lot of trouble.”
No one spoke in favor of lettering during the public meeting Monday.
The board voted 5-0 against recognizing trapshooting with a varsity letter.
“That’s just something we can’t get into,” said board president Kim Tiefenthaler.
Larry Greving and Dave Frank, volunteer trapshooting coaches, at a previous meeting addressed the board and asked that it consider allowing trapshooting athletes the opportunity to earn varsity letters for their performance in the activity.
Greving told the board that this is a gap sport, one that provides an activity for students who do not regularly participate in other extracurricular offerings.
He provided details about practices, shoots, liability, safety and the student requirements for participation. Not yet a sanctioned sport, Greving and Frank were asking the board to provide recognition as an added benefit to students.
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