Tennessee School Fires Tech Over 3D Printed Paintball Gun Part

[Brian_Krassenstein]

A computer technician in Tennessee, Michael Hughes, was fired this week after he used the school district's 3D printer to print inoperable parts for a paintball gun. The 3D printer had been won by a teacher at Tuckers Crossroads School at a conference earlier this school year. Administration terminated Hughes after deeming his use of the machine as an "unfortunate lapse in judgment." See more information in the following article: http://3dprint.com/19582/tech-fired-...dpaintballgun/


What do you guys think? Was this termination a fair one? Below is a picture of a paintball gun made with 3D printed components:

[plugh]

A computer technician in Tennessee, Michael Hughes, was fired this week after he used the school district's 3D printer to print inoperable parts for a paintball gun. The 3D printer had been won by a teacher at Tuckers Crossroads School at a conference earlier this school year. Administration terminated Hughes after deeming his use of the machine as an "unfortunate lapse in judgment." See more information in the following article: http://3dprint.com/19582/tech-fired-...dpaintballgun/


What do you guys think? Was this termination a fair one? Below is a picture of a paintball gun made with 3D printed components:

It's a fair termination. Using work equipment for personal projects is unethical and violates most HR policies.
I suspect if he printed the parts to make his own RepRap printer at home, he would still have a job.

[richardphat]

It's a fair termination. Using work equipment for personal projects is unethical and violates most HR policies.
I suspect if he printed the parts to make his own RepRap printer at home, he would still have a job.

No it's not. The deputy director act on impulse just show the lack of judgement and having no brain at all. He's going to kick his personal for the sake of printing inoperable device? Suck it, I bet he would have been fired for printing kitchen knife holder, because he would fall in the same category. Oh wait, let's get more serious printing some pencil case holder.... He would have been fired for misuse of school propertie's equipment?

Acting work to rules with impulse, especially coming out from deputy, clearly tells he's a complete big moron.

[richardphat]

Heck, the only time I have ever know staff getting fired for valid reason were vandalism or theft. In our university, we had one of our staff that got fired because he actually stole a laptop from a student. That was a severe case, he got fired. He could have been sued and get a criminal record, but they didn't want to get that far.

Let's not put this guy in the same categories.

[Mjolinor]

There will be things that are not being printed, as always.

Affair with wife, got a better car, not liked generally, has red hair etc etc.

[Feign]

Meanwhile, in the high school I went to oh so long ago, this is how they have paintball gun incidents...

There are talks of them making the "active shooter training scenario" a semi-regular event over there like fire drills. Certainly a different approach to the problem.

(not really on-subject with 3D Printing, but I just wanted to brag a little bit on my old high school. They take Drama class very seriously.)

[kathmorgan12]

That was a bit severe for a punishment. I think a temporary suspension would have been enough for his actions. If he does it for the second time, then being fired is definitely a sound judgement.

[Marm]

I think it should come down to whether he was abusing the facilities afforded to him. Did he make multiple copies of prints, never paying for the filament? Was he warned before? That may be the issue here.

Or did he get fired because the word gun was uttered somewhere in the county? Or did he bring the "gun" into the school to test the parts?

Any way you look at it, there are serious lapses in judgement with all parties involved.

[Fresh Prints of 3D]

That's my paintball gun!!! Stoked to see it making the news. I've been doing 3d printed paintball gear for about a year now. If you like that one, check out some of my other gear. http://freshprints3d.com/

I'm not the same person who was fired. The picture was wrongly attributed to that guy, but to keep things on topic, it's my opinion that we don't really have enough information to pass judgement.
Some schools have paintball teams, and other schools won't even consider thinking about supporting a paintball team.
This scenario is made even more sketchy because of all the controversy around 3d printed guns. Some people don't recognize the huge differences between paintball markers and real guns. Anyone in the sport would consider paintball markers to be a piece of equipment, similar to a baseball or golf club; but those same pieces of equipment can easily be labelled as weapons under certain circumstances.
To make things more convoluted, we don't know whether this gentleman was printing stuff for personal use or for commercial sale, nor do we know who was footing the bill for filament.