Three students tipped off a school employee Tuesday that another student had a handgun inside the Gary Middle College, 131 E. 5th Ave., Thursday.
Police arrested a 16-year-old male student who’s from Hobart.
Police said the Glock handgun was fully loaded with an extended magazine.
Kevin Teasley, president and founder of the GEO Foundation which operates the Gary Middle charter school, said all of the school’s entrances have metal detectors. In this case, however, he said school personnel were apparently not at the door when the student arrived.
“Metal detectors alone are not the answer. They go off on keys and phones. Schools as a whole are not necessarily manning them 24/7. Nobody is at the door full-time,” said Teasley.
In this incident, Teasley said three students reported the student had a gun. He said a counselor approached the student and a security officer searched him and found the gun.
He said the student didn’t resist. “It was handled peacefully,” he said.
Teasley said the student has been enrolled since last fall. Gary Middle College is a grades 9-12 charter high school for non-traditional students ages 16-and-up. It has two campuses in Gary and one in East Chicago.
“You never know what was happening inside students’ head or why he had gun. Obviously, this is alarming that someone had a gun on our campus,” said Teasley. “At the same time, students spoke up… they may have helped avoid a real tragedy.”
So far this year, there have been about 18 school shootings that resulted in injuries or deaths. On Monday, a 31-year-old woman was shot and injured in school parking lot in Flint, Mich. after she got into a fight with another parent.
“We’re definitely, like every school, on edge with these kinds of things,” said Teasley.
Teasley said the metal detectors are a deterrent.
“I don’t know how good of a deterrent it actually is. They do have someone at the door now,” he said.
In March, School City of Hammond elementary students discovered a handgun on their school bus and told the driver. Officials found later it belonged to a high school teen.
Also in Hammond, a 16-year-old Dolton, Illinois, boy is facing a felony charge after Hammond Central High officials found a handgun in a backpack he brought inside the school on Jan. 31.
Carole Carlson is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
Michelle L. Quinn contributed.
