Has Zero Tolerance Gone Too Far?

Los Angeles Unified School District board members are scheduled to vote Tuesday on whether to eliminate the use of air rifles and dummy air rifles from the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps programs in its high schools.

The use of rifles in Junior ROTC is in conflict with the district’s zero-tolerance gun policy.

Air rifles that shoot pellets are used by Junior ROTC’s rifle teams, and nonfunctioning rifles are used by the armed drill teams and color guard teams for school ceremonies and community events.

LESLIE PARRILLA spoke with Los Angeles Junior ROTC cadets about the district’s policy.

AMANDA PENA

17, senior, Fairfax High School

Iunderstand the district’s point of view. Some people who see us drilling think “they have guns and shouldn’t.” When I came to ROTC, I thought you shouldn’t have guns in school.

But instruction from the teachers prevents kids from misusing guns. And this program was designed by the U.S. Army and uses military concepts like uniforms, sabers and guns. The weapons are part of the program; the guns have been part of the program since the 1960s.

If it changes, people will be shocked; it’s tradition. We’ve always had weapons and nothing has ever happened. I was shocked when I heard they wanted to take the guns away. I thought something must be wrong if they want to take the guns out of ROTC. But we’re not causing any harm.

It will really hurt the program because most of the kids come into ROTC because they see us performing with the guns. It attracts people.

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RACHEL MURPHY

15, sophomore, Monroe High School

If they decide to eliminate the rifles, it will end the armed drilled team because you can’t have an armed drill team without arms. And they’re just dummy rifles. They’re not real. You can’t even load them. We’re just using them for marching. It’s part of our demonstration.

Some of my friends who aren’t in ROTC look at it like, “Wow, that’s interesting how you carry and spin the rifles.” We’re not showing them how to shoot people and start a Columbine. They don’t look at it like that. We don’t do things where we’re pointing the guns at people. We spin them, toss them and then lock them up.

The instructors don’t do anything to encourage you to want to go out and use a real weapon. Kids don’t have that feeling of being armed because we don’t load the rifles in drill team. There’s no aspect of being armed. I don’t touch real guns or like to deal with real weapons.

I don’t think it’s right that they should take away the guns. They just shouldn’t be concerned with this.

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FRANCISCO RODRIGUEZ

16, sophomore, Hollywood High School

The school district has the wrong idea. The reason for having the guards carry the rifles is to honor those who died for the flag. And it’s an air rifle. My friends see me carrying the rifle for color guard and I tell them it’s not real, it can’t fire and the muzzle is blocked. I explain to them that it’s not for playing with. They know that we don’t play with guns.

We use them for honoring.

It’s not about influence, it’s a way of showing us how to deal with everything. This isn’t people being in a gang or having friends who carry guns for safety. In ROTC the instructors explain the history of guns, how to carry them and how to be responsible whenever we see a gun at home or at school by putting it away. It gives us and understanding of the weapon.