Teacher in Custody Provokes Twitter Conspiracy Theories

The conversation on Twitter has turned back to conspiracy theories after a teacher in Dalton, [...]

By Michael Hein

The conversation on Twitter has turned back to conspiracy theories after a teacher in Dalton, Georgia was apprehended after allegedly firing a gun at his school on Wednesday.

The Dalton Police Department reportedly responded to a "shot or shots fired" at Dalton High School, and authorities confirmed that they took a teacher into custody. Students were reportedly evacuated to a local convention center while police dealt with the teacher, who had allegedly barricaded themself into their classroom.

The story struck a nerve on Twitter, where users have already spent the last two weeks hotly debating gun control, school violence and, of course, conspiracy theories. Many conspiracies erupted shortly after the shooting in Parkland, Florida on Valentine's Day, suggesting that the survivors calling for gun reform were "crisis actors" working for the left-wing agenda to strip legal gun owners of their rights.

These conspiracies had supporters as high-profile as Donald Trump Jr., who was in hot water for "liking" a tweet that called one of the survivors a paid performer.

After the incident in Dalton, the same kinds of ideas began propagating almost immediately, with users wondering whether the whole thing was a hoax, or if the teacher could have been paid to conveniently fuel the fire of the call for stricter gun regulation.

"Ok. Ok. Ok. I hate conspitards but did we really just get a teacher opening fire, harming no one, just as one side was proposing arming teachers?" wrote one user. "That's awfully strange."


The idea of arming teachers and other school officials has been hotly debated every since the president expressed support for it, though it's largely unpopular with educators.

"But why would the teacher risk their career and life for a talking point?" wondered another user in response. "Sounds like a conspiracy on your part."

"To everyone saying the the Dalton High School teacher is only trying to spark conversation by proving a point, we should be having this conversation," one person pointed out. "If you wanna arm teachers with guns you need to be prepared for things like this to happen and respond accordingly."

The local authorities have confirmed that no one was hurt in the incident. For the most part, other details aren't yet available.

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