I bet it is the most saferest school is all the land!!! 
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Posted February 7, 2006
Range in school basement a 'fluke'
Sheboygan Press staff
When Jeff and Terri Lyon want to practice their shooting skills, they load up their competition Anschutz target rifles, their protective shooting jackets and their .22-caliber ammunition and head to — Urban Middle School.
For more than 50 years, the 68-year-old school has been home to the community's only open public indoor shooting range.
"It is quite peculiar that you can bring guns into a school zone," said Jeff Lyon, 50.
In an age of zero-tolerance policies that carry harsh consequences for the possession of weapons, alcohol or drugs on school property, the presence of a shooting range in a building filled with 11-, 12- and 13-year-olds during the day is something of a novelty, said Joe Sheehan, Sheboygan Area School District superintendent.
"It's really kind of a fluke," Sheehan said. "There are guidelines … we can use the facilities during non-school times. I wouldn't bet there are very many in the whole state."
According to the district's dangerous weapons policy, "No person may possess, go armed with, use or store a 'dangerous weapon' on any school property, on any school bus or at any school-related activity."
Dangerous weapons include firearms, loaded or unloaded, illegal knives, razors, karate sticks and electric weapons.
The policy also states that it is not a violation of the policy if a person "uses a dangerous weapon solely in the course of the school sanctioned firearm training, competition and recreation programs approved by the school administration."
The shooting range, built in 1955 and run jointly by the Sheboygan Rifle & Pistol Club and the school district's Community Recreation Department ever since, fits that exception.
The range was built by the Rifle & Pistol Club in an unused area of the building's basement when it was still North High School. The club paid $1,642 for the room at that time and turned it over to the school system.
The recreation department schedules and charges for activities, such as open shooting time or classes, and club members manage the range and teach the courses.
With the exception of 1994, when the range was closed briefly for the installation of a new ventilation system, it has operated without pause and without incident since its doors opened, said Augie Margenau, 66, secretary of the gun club.
Margenau is on duty at the range every Tuesday during open shooting time. For $2.50 per person, gun owners get 30 minutes in the six-lane range to practice target shooting. Shooters must bring their own ammunition.
The Sheboygan Police Department also used to use the school's range for target practice as well, said county historian and retired police officer Bill Wangemann.
"When I first joined the police department in 1963, we were doing our shooting there," Wangemann said. "The sheriff's department used it, too."
Today, the Sheboygan County Sheriff's Department has an indoor shooting range, which it shares with Sheboygan police and other departments in the county. There is also an outdoor city police shooting range near the Sheboygan water treatment plant.
Burt Schuldt is the instructor for the basic pistol-shooting course at Urban, which began Feb. 1.
"We stress safety, of course," Schuldt said. "It's recreation. It's something a husband and wife can do together. It's a good thing we have it."
That's exactly how the Lyons of Kiel feel. They shoot competitively with three shooting leagues —in Manitowoc, Appleton and Fond du Lac — but get in their practice time at the Urban range.
"It's a lot of fun," said Terri Lyon. "It's something we can do together."
"I get such a kick out of shooting with her," said Jeff Lyon, who started using the Urban range when he was 12. "She beat me all of last year."
Urban Middle School principal Susan Nennig said the range goes largely unnoticed by her students, despite the presence of a sign over the door designating the room as a shooting range.
"They probably think it's an old sign," Nennig said. "Because it's in the lower level, it's very physically separate from other activities we have. It's never, ever been a problem."
Ron Marshman, his wife, Mary, and his neighbor, John Gill, all of Howards Grove, also showed up to practice shooting on a recent Tuesday. The Marshmans live on a hobby farm and Ron Marshman said he practices target shooting out on his land when the weather is good enough.
"People who live in the city don't have that," he said. "Still, we like to come to the indoor range — it's a controlled environment."
For Margenau, the range is both an endangered species and a reminder of a time when people's attitudes about shooting were more tolerant.
"I've been shooting since I started hunting in 1956," Margenau said. "I've enjoyed the sport, enjoyed the freedom. I love this. I worry about its future."
