Teacher’s behavior bizarre before gun scare

When a north Georgia high school teacher was charged this week with firing a gunshot from inside a barricaded classroom and setting off a frantic lockdown and evacuation, it was not his first troubling encounter with police.

Just over a year ago, school employees and a police officer began searching Dalton High School after social studies instructor Jesse Randal Davidson went missing.

He was finally found sitting on the curb along a street a few blocks from the campus, being propped up by two school staffmembers, police said.

“I attempted to speak with Davidson as did staff members but no amount of stimulus would draw a response,” an officer wrote in his report. Davidson was then taken to a hospital.

In 2016, Davidson walked into the lobby of the Dalton police headquarters and told a wild story including his suspicions that someone had been murdered, police said. Detectives couldn’t verify that any of it was true, and he was taken to the hospital since he’d expressed thoughts of hurting himself, police wrote in their report on that episode.

Davidson now faces six charges including aggravated assault; terroristic threats and acts; and having a weapon on school property. He waived a Thursday court appearance, and it appeared likely that he will face a judge Tuesday, Whitfield County sheriff’s Capt. Wes Lynch said. His lawyer couldn’t immediately be reached for comment Thursday.

No one was shot Wednesday, but the case is adding fuel to an already intense debate over whether teachers should be armed to make schools safer. The gunfire erupted with a nation on edge following a Florida school shooting that killed 17 people and ignited a new debate over gun control. President Donald Trump has advocated arming teachers.

Davidson has not told detectives what triggered his actions Wednesday, Dalton police spokesman Bruce Frazier said.

Davidson has been teaching since 2004 at Dalton High, where he’s also taught history, the school system said in its article about his book on the history of the football team.