Alaska has a regulation that says a student who brings a gun to school must be suspended for a minimum of one year. While I was principal in Kake, Alaska ,there was at least one school board member who had missed that memo. I know this because one day he drove up to the elementary school with a rifle in plain sight on the gun rack in the cab of his pickup. My expert strategy for handling the situation was not to notice.

And then there was that teacher who had worked on Little Diomede Island before coming to Kake. That’s polar bear country. She told me that whenever she took the kids on a walking field trip, it was expected that they would have a means of self-defense. She recalled leaving the school on a walk once and realizing that nobody had brought a gun. She said, and I quote, “Seventh grade and up, go home and get your rifles.” 

In Kake, of course, we dealt with the polar bear’s milder cousin, the black bear.  At the end of my third year, we made plans to take the entire elementary school for a full day picnic at the beach on McCarthy Point.  The VPSO (Village Public Safety Officer), who sometimes came with us on excursions like this, would not be available. Jeff, the bus driver, texted me the night before to suggest that we bring a rifle. I ran it by the superintendent, because I most definitely did not want to be left holding the bag on this one. He said only, “good idea.” The next morning, I backed my car up to Jeff’s four-wheeler, and we put the rifle (in its case) on the floorboards of my car with a blanket over it.  I decided to keep the car locked, and the key in my pocket. I explained this procedure to the superintendent and suggested that we inform someone on the school board (maybe the one with the gun rack?). I wondered briefly how we would get to this rifle in time to stop a charging bear, but my emergency backup plan was to scream like a little girl and throw my key to Jeff.  During the day, we saw only one bear, and it was way, way off down the beach. I watched it for a while through binoculars, as it ambled towards us. When it became aware of us it stopped suddenly, stared for a moment, and hurried off into the bushes in the opposite direction. We, I suppose, were making a lot of noise.