A math teacher from Florida has been placed on administrative leave following a series of inflammatory comments he made in regards to hypothetical school shootings.
Mark Cook made comments to students following a lockdown drill which left many parents concerned about the safety of their children.
Mr. Cook told the students that he would “be the best school shooter”.
Mr. Cook then went on to brag that he would cause a ‘1,000 person body count’, according to reports from Fox News .
Mark Cook then went on to detail to the students how he would go about carrying out the shooting.
According to students who were present, Mr. Cook explained that in his hypothetical shooting he would plant IEDs, fire off rounds, and then detonate the explosives killing everyone, reports Fox .
The comments led to Cook being placed under a Risk Protection Order which bars him from teaching at present.
Superintendent Jacqueline M. Byrd issued a press release which stated, “Every day, Polk County Public Schools is entrusted with the lives of more than 105,000 precious children. As superintendent, I will do everything I can to protect every single one of them.
“Parents and students should be assured that we take any potential threat against our students and schools seriously. Student safety is — and always will be — paramount within our school district”, according to Bay9News .
No weapons were found at Mr. Cook’s home by the police, but they are still taking the claims very seriously.
Mr. Cook went on to try and explain to the police that his remarks were meant as a joke.
It also emerged that Cook was a former Marine.
CNN published an excerpt of the report written by Detective Justin Conatser, who filed the risk protection order, which stated:
“Being a former Marine he should be looked at as the person who will protect the students, and not make them question whether their teacher is looking to harm them”.
The feeling was one of disbelief amongst the community, with previous students sharing their shock.
Talking to Fox , one of Cook’s previous students was quoted as saying, “That honestly blows my mind. My heart is racing right now. I would’ve never expected Mr. Cook to say something like that.”
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Lakeland High School informed the parents of the school’s students of the incident by releasing an automated message.
The message said, “Following Friday’s lockdown drill, a teacher described hypothetical acts of violence against the school and these comments were upsetting students”, according to Yahoo .
There have been 22 shootings in US schools in this year alone which is a truly terrifying statistic.
The 22 shootings have taken place all across the US, according to CNN’s report on the shootings this year. Due to this worrying statistic, it is understandable that Mr. Cook’s comments, be them simply a joke gone wrong or not, have been taken as seriously as they have.
Mark Cook is due to appear in court on August 30th, in order to attend a hearing on the risk protection order.
Mr. Cook has no criminal history and it is remarkable that someone in his position would think that it is in any way okay to discuss with students the ideas that he did, be it a joke or not.
