'A Heroic Act' 

Editor:

I want to bring attention to the "community member" who may have saved many lives by coming forward with information that a 15-year-old Eel River Community School student planned to arrive at school with weapons to deal with a dispute between that student and another ("A Troubling Trend," Sept. 14). It takes courage to speak up when someone you know is acting in a dangerous way. Maybe nothing would have happened; or students, teachers, law enforcement officers and parents could have been wounded and killed. This was a heroic act. 

Please know what you did was exactly the right thing to do! Hopefully your act will get both students involved in their dispute the necessary mental health help they need. You may have saved them from years of incarceration and wasted lives in the prison system, with or without debilitating injuries from gun shots.

Teen gun violence is obviously a problem, but far worse is the underlying problem that guns are thought of as necessary tools for solving problems.

You have been courageous. Thank you!

Judy Sears, Arcata