A teenage student in the Iola Independent School District in Iola, Texas, faced an investigation this summer after a four-year-old photo of him hunting with a gun was reposted to Facebook.
According to a local news report, a student in the Iola Independent School District faced an investigation from his school over a hunting photo that was posted to Facebook. The photo, which depicted a boy and an older man hunting in the woods, sparked an investigation by school administrators in August.
Scott Martindale, Iola ISD superintendent, said that the post had the word “school” in it. “It was a young student, had a handgun in the picture and part of the wording on the picture it had the word “school” in it. So we take that stuff very seriously here. As we investigated we found out the picture was a four-year-old picture,” Martindale said.
The student in question was questioned by law enforcement over the photo. After a short series of questions and a bag search, the school deemed that he was not a threat.
“It took us five minutes to handle this situation and handle it appropriately,” Martindale explained. “It was before school started. We had two younger students report something to our elementary principal. By 7:55 the elementary principal tracked that student down that had the posting.”
Lt. Daniel Wagnon of the Grimes County Sheriff’s Office claims that an investigation was only conducted after his department learned that the student’s post mentioned the word, “school.” “The issue was not that the juvenile had a firearm, he was under adult supervision at the time he had the firearm. The sole reason for the investigation was that the comment was made about the school in conjunction with a firearm,” Wagnon said.
Breitbart News reported on August 30 that a Colorado student was suspended from school after going to the gun range with his mother.