Safety, respect learned during field day

What was taught in the classroom about weapons and safety, Daleville High School students experienced on a local range during a Hunter Safety Education Field Day held Wednesday, April 10.

Students who participate in the field day must be taking or have taken the Hunter Safety Education Certification course, which teaches students about weapons safety and proper techniques for handling firearms, offered through the Fish and Wildlife class at DHS.

This is the second field day offered to DHS students. DHS teacher Franky Jackson first asked the Daleville City Board of Education in 2018 to allow him to hold the Field Day, which he said was originally part of the hunter safety course. He returned at the board’s March 20 meeting to request permission to hold the Field Day at the Tri-State Gun Club.

“I think (this field day) will be a good experience for the students to get hands-on experience while under supervision of trained adults,” Jackson wrote in a letter to the school board. “This experience will be a valuable lesson on firearms and their capabilities. This will also reinforce the need for safety when handling firearms of any kind.”

Throughout the day, students were taught by law enforcement officers, game wardens and others trained in firearms education how to properly use a variety of weapons, like a pistol, shotgun or bow, as well as safety precautions to take when handling weapons.

In addition to firearms and weapons experience, students learned about fish, including how to clean fish and find their age, and animal traps, such as body or leg traps.

The weapons and ammunition were provided by the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, which has a unit that travels to offer field days for hunter education students.

Some students have previous experience with firearms. Others, like student Alexis Brown, experienced shooting a weapon for the first time during the field day.

“This is my first time shooting a firearm or a weapon of any kind,” she said.

For other students, they knew the “basics” of handling a weapon, but enjoyed the field day experience all the same.

“I think it’s been pretty fun,” Jose Deras said about the field day. “It’s been enjoyable. I’ve never shot a rifle before, an actual live rifle. I’ve shot rifles for (JROTC) Rifle Team before, but never shot anything like this before.

“I like the experience. I like getting to be able to do something different.”

According to student Shawniee Underwood, who says she has experience with firearms, the class supports what the students learn in the classroom.

“(The field day) is beneficial because it teaches kids how to control firearms and weapons,” she said. “We’ve been learning to control the muzzle, keep our finger off the trigger, learning to aim the gun and when not to aim, not to fire.”

Lauren Dorminey, who also says she has previous experience with firearms, echoed the statements of other DHS students.

“It’s great for (students) to be out here and actually do these things because classroom instruction is nothing when you actually get out in the real world when you’re handling a gun unless you have had that practice of using that firearm in a controlled environment,” she said. “I think it’s really amazing to be able to go over all the safety precautions and everything else. It makes it more real.”

Dorminey said “mishaps” can occur when individuals are not trained in a controlled environment and taught the safety precautions of handling weapons. The controlled environment the DHS students were placed in included game wardens and trained instructors watching each student’s every move.

“We’re not getting out there on our own just shooting and possibly hitting something that we don’t mean to hit,” she said. “We’re actually getting that controlled environment type of practice where they’re helping us with our form, with our aim.

“A lot of people are scared of firearms,” she said. “Yes, you’ve got to have a healthy respect for them, but it’s not something you should be scared of. You’ve got to learn how to handle it, and as long as you can handle it properly, it’s a tool like any other.”