LOS ANGELES, CA – The PC police are at it again, this time targeting Los Angeles teacher Greg Schiller after two of his students created a pair of relatively innocuous science projects with the words “gun” and “cannon” in the title.
According to L.A. Teacher’s Union representative Rover Scott, Schiller was removed from his classroom six weeks ago for “supervising the building, research and development of imitation weapons,” because the students turned in a coil gun and small compressed-air cannon for their science fair projects.
The coil gun, also known as a Gauss gun, uses charged electromagnetic coils to accelerate projectiles down a barrel. In this case, a single AA battery provided the charge. Meanwhile, the compressed-air cannon did not have a source of compressed air.
Asa Ferguson, the ninth grader who submitted the coil gun, thinks that the word “gun” in the title of his project caused the overreaction. “I think that if I had said it was an electromagnetic propulsion system it would not have been taken out,” said Ferguson.
According to union representative Roger Scott, Mr. Schiller was suspended for “supervising the building, research and development of imitation weapons.”
Apparently this is what you get in today’s environment for volunteering to run a science fair.
This suspension comes at a time of heightened tensions between school administrators and Mr. Schiller, who up until his suspension served as the teachers union representative at the school. Mr. Schiller and the administration were in the process of updating employment agreements, and had been clashing over the terms.
In an interview with the LA Times, Mr. Schiller said, “I would never do anything to set up a situation where a student could be harmed.”
Initially, Mr. Schiller prepared lesson plans for his class’s substitutes, but was told to stop by the school district.
“This is really hurting my students more than anything else,” said Mr. Schiller.
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