When a student shows up at a school with a gun, what is the appropriate reaction from the school staff? That is the question being asked and the question that is impacting high school coach and athletic director Kenneth Miller.
On August 20, 2021, a female student brought a gun to school. Miller responded by restraining the student. The physical altercation was caught on bodycam footage.
It might sound like a good thing to restrain a student who is armed, but that was not the way the school administration felt about it. They responded by suspending Miller. For most of the school year, he was on administrative leave. Then, at the end of the school year, he received the news that he wasn’t being fired but he was being demoted.
Instead of remaining the athletic director at the high school, he was being transferred to a middle school where he would be the PE teacher.
The school board believes Miller’s behavior was unprofessional, but Miller believes he didn’t do anything wrong. He explained, “I only did what I was asked to do and out of that situation we found guns. We saved lives and I’m the only one receiving a consequence and a punishment.”
Miller’s attorney, Allen Lightcap, told FOX 5, “We are looking at a federal lawsuit to defend his constitutional rights.”
Fulton County Schools released a statement about Miller’s behavior stating, “Mr. Miller inappropriately intervened in a student matter being handled by school administrators and law enforcement. Mr. Miller acted outside of the scope of his authority and responsibilities. Mr. Miller’s conduct resulted in an escalation of a physical altercation with a student in crisis, which conflicts with district expectations to deescalate in these types of situations.”
See the bodycam footage and hear what Miller has to say about the altercation and his demotion in the video below.
