An 11-year-old student at Lansing, Michigan‘s Dwight Rich School of the Arts, saw another student carrying a gun in May last year. In that moment, he realized that he needed to protect everyone in the class rather than panic or run away. The boy (Sakir Everett) reportedly disarmed and disassembled the gun using his hunting skills before throwing away the bullets.
His mother, Savitra McClurkin, and a family friend who created a GoFundMe have called him a hero. However, because of Michigan’s zero-tolerance policies, the school district now tags him as a student who has been expelled for a full year.
The struggle between compassion and policy has brought about heated debate far beyond Lansing. Was the boy brave or reckless? McClurkin told WILX that her son didn’t want to accuse the student who brought the gun. Instead, he quietly took control of the circumstance…