Parent in Homer gun incident responds

Safiya Merchant | Battle Creek Enquirer

Joseph Matthew Solis-Mullen — a father of three, restaurant cook and concealed pistol license holder — is at the center of a debate with the Homer Community Schools over carrying a gun on school grounds.

The schools were locked down Monday when Solis-Mullen showed up at the district building openly carrying a 9mm Smith & Wesson pistol, but he says his actions were legal and that no one should be afraid.

Calhoun County Sheriff Matt Saxton has said Michigan law allows a person with a valid concealed pistol license, or CPL, to openly carry a weapon. Homer Superintendent Robert Wright says it's a violation of district policy to have any weapons on its school grounds.

"I really hate the way the law is written because it draws a ton of attention to yourself and you're putting yourself in risk, in a risky position," Solis-Mullen said. "If something terrible did happen, who's the first person the shooter is going to shoot? The guy with the gun."

The issue arose Friday and led to Monday's hard lockdown of Homer schools, a series of events for which officials and Solis-Mullen have differing accounts.

The debate between the Homer schools and Solis-Mullen started when he came into Lillian Fletcher Elementary School Friday morning to sign in his son. That day, he came to the building openly carrying a holstered gun.

The building secretary, Solis-Mullen said, insisted he could not carry the gun at the school, even after he explained he was a CPL holder. He left the school that day without incident.

Solis-Mullen said he has been on school grounds open-carrying more than once since he became a CPL holder in early November. He even attended parent-teacher conferences carrying a gun.

"I even asked (the secretary) 'what do you mean, you can't tell me just now you're noticing this,'" Solis-Mullen said. "And she's like, 'Oh yeah, I would have said something.' I'm like 'Wow, that is incredibly scary then.' Because it's not like I was wearing something super-tiny or like trying to keep it hidden, it was literally like as open as could be. I wanted to make sure that no part of my shirt was covering it, nothing."

Wright responded Wednesday, saying if anybody had seen the gun, they did not report it. He said the staff was quite surprised when Solis-Mullen told that to them as well.

"To the average Joe, we're not looking for those type of things," Wright said Wednesday. "... We're not trained to look for those type of things."

A Calhoun County sheriff deputy later visited Solis-Mullen to talk about Friday's events. Wright said earlier this week sheriff's deputies tried to "convince him that it's not a good thing — even though it might be one of his rights, doesn't mean it's the right thing to do."

Both Solis-Mullen and his wife, Alexandria Solis-Mullen, had different characterizations of that conversation.

"(The deputy) was like, 'Just want to let you know (you) didn't do anything illegal, you're not under any trouble or anything," Solis-Mullen said. "'The school complained, though, so I have to follow up and let you know that I went and talked to them and told them about the law. They honestly didn't know; it was an honest mistake; sorry to bother you.'"

"He literally said, 'If it was me, what I would just do is I would just leave it in my car. But you're perfectly within your right carrying it in school if you wish to do so in the manner that you've been doing it,'" Solis-Mullen said.

Wright said Wednesday he stands by what he said earlier this week, "which is what was shared with me by the officers, that that was going to be the premise."

Solis-Mullen said after that conversation, he called the school secretary, who told him the school wasn't aware of the law and that although they didn't like it, they understand the law.

On Monday, the day of the eventual lockdown, Wright called Solis-Mullen to come in and have a conversation about the issue. Both Solis-Mullen and his wife attended the meeting and sat inside the elementary school principal's office. Solis-Mullen was carrying his 9mm handgun.

"(Wright) shuts the door, turns to me and says 'If you don't disarm right now and take that firearm out to your car, I'm going to lock the school down,'" Solis-Mullen said. "So at that point, I literally just stood up and said 'OK then, I'm just going to leave then, you know; I'm not looking to cause any problems; I'll just leave then.'"

Wright said that's not what he exactly said. He said he indicated to Solis-Mullen that the school would be going into lockdown because that's protocol, but that if he wished to take the gun back to his car, they could continue the conversation.

"At that point, he stood up and said 'This conversation is over,'" Wright said, though the superintendent said neither he nor the parents left immediately and there was some more conversation. Wright said he stepped out once an unrelated conversation began.

"I wanted to have the discussion so that we could come to an understanding about where the school stood and the protocol that we have developed to follow in this situation, but that conversation never really occurred because I did preempt the conversation with I would prefer that that not be in the building," Wright said Wednesday.

After minutes of discussion, Solis-Mullen said Wright left, saying he would be right back. Seconds later, an alarm started blaring over the speakers. Wright did not return before the Solis-Mullens departed a few minutes later; Wright has said the hard lockdown lasted about 10 minutes.

Contrary to both Wright and authorities' statements, the Solis-Mullens said they were never asked to stay in the lobby and that a student was in the office area at the time of their appointment. Wright has said Solis-Mullen had no contact with students during the Monday incident.

Calhoun County Sheriff authorities later told Solis-Mullen he had not broken any laws and that the school informed them that they would institute a lockdown if he came back again open carrying.

"I don't even think that the school is necessarily doing anything wrong," Alexandria Solis-Mullen said. "As a parent with a child there, I understand their concerns and I just think that instituting a lockdown every time that Joe came in ... it's just a waste of time for the school." She said it's a waste of taxpayer dollars to call the police every time during the lockdowns.

Both Solis-Mullen and his wife have several concerns about how their entire situation has been handled and communicated to the public.

Alexandria Solis-Mullen said she felt the Monday incident was staged and that the school could have asked her husband over the phone to not bring his gun to the meeting, as well as told him about the potential lockdown.

"For us doing what is right is standing up for our constitutionally protected, state-sanctioned right," she said. "I'm not a carrier, but I think it's important to stand up for this right in the face of what really felt like (Superintendent) Wright bullying."

Alexandria Solis-Mullen added Monday's situation "felt like (Wright) was trying to embarrass us into compliance because it's a small town and everybody's talking about us now."

She said the superintendent's phone message to parents about Monday's events was ambiguous. In the message automatically called to parents in the district, Wright said a person scheduled for a meeting arrived and was in violation of the district's board policy on possessing open-carry weapons on school grounds. It did not mention Solis-Mullen's license.

Solis-Mullen said he carries guns in part to protect all that he has worked and sacrificed for. He said his decision is partly based on what he sees in the news.

"These news engines ... whatever you click on, they will feed you more of that stuff," he said. "So if you click on stuff about school shootings, which obviously I do — I have kids in the school — it will feed you more mass shootings. So that's all I see when I open my news feeds."

Referring to a story in the Homer Index weekly newspaper about the incident that included statements from Wright about how people could be calm and collected one day and raging the next, Solis-Mullen said his pistol license indicates he would be the last person to fly into a rage. He also said he had to undergo rigorous background checks, fingerprinting and approval from the county gun board to get his license.

"No, you can count on the fact that I'm not going to be raging mad because I'm 26 years old and the reason I have a CPL is I am at good at walking away from situations, from de-escalating situations," Solis-Mullen said. "If you have even one misdemeanor, even if it's just a misdemeanor of assault or battery, you cannot get a CPL because you've proven that you have an inability to walk away from situations and to handle things properly."

Solis-Mullen said there has been no effort to try to work something out between him and the school. Wright, Saxton and Solis-Mullen are planning to meet again Thursday to discuss the situation.

Wright said on Thursday, he will "clearly recognize his right to open carry on school grounds based upon his valid CPL and that as a gun owner myself, I have no problem with that right, but I also have a duty to protect students and staff, and that's where we just have to come to an understanding about how we're going to work that out."

Although Solis-Mullen said he agreed to not bring a gun to the school for Thursday's meeting, he said whether or not he carries one on school grounds in the future is going to depend on the outcome of the meeting. He said the hope is to come to some sort of agreement.

"Quite honestly, the superintendent does not strike me as a man of his word, or at least he's someone who gets confused very easily by what he did or didn't say or what did or didn't happen," Solis-Mullen said. "Very hard for me to trust honest dealings from a man like that. I have personally very high hopes because there's so many different options. But if he's just going to stonewall me and say 'no,' then I'm just going to keep carrying. I'm not doing anything wrong."

Contact Safiya Merchant at 269-966-0684 or smerchant@battlecreekenquirer.com. Follow her on Twitter: @SafiyaMerchant