PITTSBURGH—School officials in Pittsburgh say a kindergartener was found with a handgun on a school bus.
Pittsburgh Public Schools spokeswoman Ebony Pugh says the gun was found in the student’s backpack Monday after school was dismissed. The student attends the Pittsburgh Faison K-5 school.
Pugh says another student alerted the bus driver to the weapon, and the gun was removed without incident. She says parents were notified via the district’s phone system.
Starting Tuesday, Pugh says all students will be required to pass through the school’s metal detectors. Previously, only adult visitors and parents were required to do so.
Pugh says school police are investigating how the student came to possess the gun. She said in an email that “information related to specific charges” wasn’t available.
Teen Charged After Gunshot at New Mexico High School
RIO RANCHO, N.M.—A 16-year-old student suspected of opening fire inside a high school in suburban Albuquerque was charged on Feb. 14, with attempting to commit murder and carrying a deadly weapon on school grounds, police said.
The shooting, in which no one was injured, came on the anniversary of the Parkland, Florida, high school massacre.
The boy, who police say fired a handgun before leaving it behind and fleeing, was quickly taken into custody. In a statement, Rio Rancho police said the student also was facing a misdemeanor count of being a person younger than 19 in possession of a firearm. Information on an attorney was not immediately known.
The Associated Press is not naming the V. Sue Cleveland High School student from Rio Rancho because of his age. Police said he had been booked into the Bernalillo County Juvenile Detention Center after he was questioned by officers.
Students were quickly evacuated, but the episode still sent shockwaves through the sprawling suburb north of New Mexico’s largest city, said Rio Rancho Police Chief Stewart Steele. More than 2,500 students attend the high school.
“It was extremely scary,” Steele said. “We just thank God it ended the way it did.”
Authorities had not yet identified a motive for the shooting that occurred around 7 a.m. Police believe the shot had been fired inside a hallway but didn’t know at the start of the day if the shooter had pointed a gun at anyone.
Rio Rancho Superintendent V. Sue Cleveland, whose name dons the high school, said at least two students witnessed the gunshot before the shooter fled on foot.
He was spotted by police 30 minutes after the shooting in dry wash near the school, Steele said.
School officials said on Twitter that all students were safe, and the district’s other schools were open. They announced later Thursday that classes at the high school would be postponed until Tuesday, the day after Presidents’ Day.
Kristy Berberich said outside the high school that her 16-year-old son called her immediately after students heard a gunshot.
“I was worried sick but I knew he was safe,” she said.
The episode came as thousands of students and others planned a moment of silence to remember the 14 students and three staff members killed last Valentine’s Day at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in the deadliest high school shooting in the nation’s history.
By Russell Contreras And Mary Hudetz