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One evening in 2014, Pagunsan received a call from his police explorer instructor – a sworn law enforcement officer. “The first thing he asked me was, ‘Are you going to shoot up your high school?’” Pagunsan recalled.
The instructor ordered Pagunsan and his mother to report to his school’s main office the next day, promptly at 8 a.m. There, they were met by another police officer, who told them Pagunsan had tripped the “Kids with Guns” protocol, and that he was now “red-flagged” as a potential school shooter.
They were also told officers would be searching Pagunsan’s bedroom.
Pagunsan’s mother grew up in the Philippines when Ferdinand Marcos was in power. Marcos, a notorious and bloody dictator, ruled with an iron fist until he was deposed in 1986. His military and police had authority to kill anyone who disagreed with the dictator’s policies, so the thought of refusing to comply with police was something Pagunsan’s mother would never do.
The officers eventually left empty-handed, and Pagunsan believed the ordeal was finally over, until he was ordered to report to the school district’s main office the next day. There, he attended yet another disciplinary meeting, with the vice-principal who had red-flagged him and the school district’s chief disciplinarian.
They explained that Pagunsan had been red-flagged under the district’s “Kids with Guns” protocol, even though he had no guns, and that the school district had acted to “stop a potential school shooter.”
Pagunsan instantly felt shame sweep over him. He began to question himself – he still does – even though he had never even considered violence. These were adults and authority figures, after all. He was a 14-year-old. The district’s disciplinarian looked at the reports in front of him, which had been written by school and police officials, and told Pagunsan he was going to be expelled.
Pagunsan was never charged with a single crime.