Wellesley High School Principal Andrew Keough Monday night issued a memo to inform WHS families that a student this afternoon informed an athletic coach that he found a bullet on the floor of the football team locker room. The coach immediately notified school administration, which in turn informed town police.
Keough wrote: “Upon investigation [by police it was] determined that the bullet was a ‘dud’ and not a live round capable of being fired. As a safety precaution, the decision was made that all lockers in the locker room would be searched. All student athletes with lockers in the space were called in and their lockers and back packs were searched by administrators. Nothing suspicious was found.
“I want to take this opportunity to state that we are confident that this was an isolated incident of someone thinking that a spent bullet is not harmful, when in fact it can be very troubling. Nevertheless, we will continue to investigate this situation and will keep you apprised of any new developments. As always, we would ask that you notify us should you have any information related to this case.”
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Principal Keough, whether the item found was a spent shell casing, or an inert bullet, then it is indeed completely harmless to any sane rational person. Please do your job as an educator and enlighten people that a “spent bullet” is completely harmless. Keeping people ignorant of this fact is contrary to all that your job requires and simply perpetuates irrational fears. Your students are not as naive as you think they are; you should take this opportunity to educate them instead of keeping them in the dark.