Morgan County Schools are taking serious steps to protect their students.

How, might you ask? By banning metal water bottles.

To “support safety and campus security,” reusable, non-clear water bottles are now prohibited in all Morgan County schools.

Officials say the ban serves as a preventative measure meant to thwart on-campus vape usage. School officials cite a number of students caught smuggling them in metal water bottles.

Jamie Pemberton, the director of Morgan County Schools, defends the ban as the obvious next step to keep vapes off school campuses. Prior to the ban, school administrators would have to search every metal water bottle that set off the in-school metal detectors.

“You know they’re having to go through and open up the cups and things … it’s just not an efficient way to do that when we’re trying to screen several 100 kids that are coming in each morning.”

If a Morgan County student comes to school with a metal water bottle, it will be confiscated, and a guardian will have to pick it up. Students are only allowed to bring clear water bottles from this point forward.

While inconvenient for students, banning metal water bottles isn’t outrageous. They might not be as trendy, and they might not keep your drink as cold, but clear, plastic water bottles will have to do. Morgan County Schools saw a problem and fixed it, convenience be d—ed. I guess students don’t need to be toting around 64-ounce Stanleys.

I just think it’s ironic that this is the legislation we’re passing to prioritize student safety. If you can find me a statistic on how many children have been killed by metal water bottles in schools, I’ll listen.

Yes, the larger issue is nicotine. I admire the initiative. I, too, believe nicotine is unregulated amongst the youth. Government institutions have failed to counteract harmful marketing geared towards children. Vapes now run rampant in schools, a socially accepted and dangerously misunderstood habit.

In Tennessee, firearms are the leading cause of death for children ages 1 to 17. This statistic has been the same since 2019.

On March 27, 2023, a school shooting took place at the Covenant Elementary School in Nashville, Tennessee. Three children, all age 9, and three adults were killed. The shooter was armed with two assault rifles and a handgun.

On Jan. 22, 2025, a school shooting took place at Antioch High School in Nashville, leaving two injured and a 16-year-old student, Josselin Corea Escalante, dead.

Tennessee lawmakers failed to address unregulated firearm access and tragedy ensued. For six years, nothing changed.

Well, a few things changed.

In July 2021, Gov. Bill Lee expanded permit-less carry. Public Chapter 108 allows Tennesseans 21 and older — and certain 18 to 20-year-old military members — to carry a loaded handgun without a permit. The eradicated permit process required background checks, safety courses and a state application process.

In April 2024, Lee signed a bill permitting teachers and staff to conceal carry on school campuses. The families of Covenant victims collected almost 4,300 signatures in an attempt to prevent the bill from passing. Lee’s defense?

“What’s important is that we give districts tools and the option to use a tool that will keep their children safe,” he says.

The “tools” he wants to let into schools are the exact thing that pose the biggest threat to students.

I don’t like Lee (keeping things editor-friendly over here).

Auburn should revoke his degree because he is clearly incapable of reading a statistic. A simple, unchanging, 6-year-old statistic.

I don’t particularly love to write about politics. But as someone who has personally witnessed the effects of school shootings on two separate occasions in my short 19 years of living — Parkland in 2018 and the Covenant in 2023 — Lee should be ashamed for not doing more. For not doing anything.

Tennessee as a whole doesn’t seem to be doing anything that says they care about kids. And for what?

To keep a red state red? To appease House Republicans? To base all legislation on one 239-year-old sentence because regulating gun rights is more unconstitutional than children being senselessly murdered?

I truly don’t understand it. I don’t understand what could possibly be more important than keeping children safe in schools.

Since 2019, Tennessee has made it easier to obtain, use and keep firearms, failing to address the statistically proven biggest threat to children. Since 2019, zero restrictive gun control legislation has been passed in Tennessee.

But at least they got rid of those pesky metal water bottles.

Unlike vaping, a child’s access and exposure to guns is directly shaped by public policy and legislation. Banning metal water bottles might get nicotine out of schools, but it won’t get it away from kids.

Those in power can easily make laws that directly dictate who, when and how people are allowed to own, use and buy guns.

Judges in Gibson County, Tennessee, demonstrated this power, ruling to appeal the legislature that prohibited guns in public parks. On the grounds that — of course — it was “unconstitutional.”

Madison County Rep. Chris Todd led the appeal, stating that his motivation was to “modernize Tennessee law governing the carrying of firearms.”

Oh, and Todd just threw this last bit in for fun — the bill would also permit individuals convicted of stalking or a misdemeanor domestic violence charge to own a firearm five years after their conviction date.

I don’t know why these people decided to enter politics. As a civil servant, your responsibility is to civilians. As a lawmaker, your priority should be students. Not giving stalkers guns.

“Kids are the most precious thing that we have in our communities,”says Pemberton. “It’s our goal to provide safety when they come into our buildings each day.”

If kids are the most precious thing we have in our communities, why are we banning water bottles before we are regulating guns? Until Tennessee lawmakers are actively working to pass gun legislation, no one can say they are prioritizing student safety.

Claire Thatcher is a freshman at UT this year studying journalism and media. She can be reached at [email protected].

Columns and letters of The Daily Beacon are the views of the individual and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Beacon or the Beacon’s editorial staff.