This year was the 30th anniversary of the Hunter Education Tournament put on by the North Carolina Wildlife Resource Commission for middle and high school teams from across the state. A very successful program teaching youth outdoor skills like safe gun handling, how to shoot a shotgun, muzzleloading, archery, and orienteering. This is a voluntary program with over 200 teams from across the state competing to see who the best is and to have the opportunity to represent North Carolina in national competition.
East Wake High School has participated for the past 22 years in this program so after months of training it came as a shock to the students involved to have the school pull the rug out from under them at the last possible minute. Less then 24hrs before the Competition School principal Sebastian Shipp and District Superintendent Danny Barnes canceled East Wake’s participation in the event. According to the N&O the reason was “Ammo and students don’t mix”. What a ridiculous statement, hunting and outdoor skills are part of the rural community and these school officials are certainly out of touch with the heritage and culture of the community they serve.
This is a long standing program staffed by Certified Hunter Safety Instructors with an impeccable safety record. I’m sure more students get hurt participating in football & baseball then those that participate in this activity.
The Camo Coalition has sent out an alert on this issue and you can easily click here and go to their page that will email the members of the Wake County School Board. I urge you to take a moment and send an email. We need to let them know that activities like these are important.
