Students learning how to shoot air rifles in the junior ROTC marksmanship program at Mission Bay and Point Loma high schools will be allowed to finish the season, decided the San Diego Unified Board of Education after voting to eliminate the program point blank. The board 3-2 voted on Feb. 24 to allow the students to complete its seasonal competitions. Board trustee John Lee Evans, who originally sought to end the air-gun training, voted to let the students finish out the season. He said he didn’t know about seasonal competitions because “it was never brought up before.” “The board’s decision seemed unfair to [the JROTC students] who entered the class this year when [marksmanship] was part of the curriculum,” Evans said. Board members John de Beck and Richard Barrera voted against the motion to delay ending marksmanship training, reaffirming their earlier votes to halt the air-rifle program. De Beck represents schools in the beach communities. Board members Katherine Nakamura, Shelia Jackson and Evans voted to return the marksmanship training for the rest of the year. Like other schools, Mission Bay and Point Loma high schools had several competitions left in the year when the district’s Board of Education voted to close the program. “I felt like all our hard work was poof, gone,” Mission Bay senior Edgar Lima said. A cadet commander, Lima said the marksmanship program is a collegiate and Olympic sport and not military weapons training. The Point Loma marksmanship instructor, 1st Sgt. Jack Patague, said students were disappointed with the decision to take away the marksmanship training, which is a collegiate sport. “The biggest thing is that I think these kids… felt they weren’t given the opportunity to finish something they started,” Patague said. Mike Hom, a Mission Bay junior and former Marine Corps JROTC student, said he was disappointed when the school board ended the marksmanship program. “We’re not firing off actual rounds,” Hom said. “It’s an air rifle. I don’t understand how [the board of trustees] can justify taking it away.” Hom said the marksmanship program taught him responsibility and safety rules. But David Morales, another Mission Bay High School student, said the board’s decision to reinstate the program sends the wrong message to students. “The message that it’s OK to have guns in school, to tolerate that; it’s not right,” Morales said. Morales said he represents the Mission Bay High students of Movimiento Etudiantil Chicano Aztlan, or MEChA, a student political group. Several students from Lincoln High and other schools have protested the marksmanship training over the last year. When the JROTC marksmanship program started at Mission Bay High in the fall of 2007, it raised concerns about conflicts with the school district’s “zero tolerance” policy on weapons in schools. The Board of Education voted 3-2 in February to end the marksmanship training after an estimated 50 to 100 students, parents and community members representing the Education Not Arms Coalition gathered at a Feb. 10 board meeting to oppose air-rifle training in schools.