MOBILE, Ala. (WKRG) — In February, several Mobile County Public School System students were arrested for having guns or making threats online.
So, News 5 asked the school district just how often students are found with weapons or even drugs on campus.
The Mobile County Public School System has 89 schools and a total of 59-thousand students enrolled.
The district hires a k9 company to do about four random school searches a week mostly in middle and high schools.
Between those searches and other reported incidents, this is what turned up in the fall semester from August 6th to December 18th, 2018; A total of seven students were disciplined after five guns were found. 57 other weapons were found including knives, pepper spray and in one case a ninja star.
Plus, a total of 89 students were disciplined for drug-related incidents during the same semester.
The district legally has to report the incidents to law enforcement, sending many students in front of Mobile County Youth Court Judge Edmond Naman. “The most important thing for a child and the most important job a child has at this age is that they get their education. There’s no reason any child should bring a weapon to school. It really scares me,” said Judge Naman.
While the idea of a child coming to school with a gun or drugs might be startling to some parents, the 153 students disciplined in the fall semester doesn’t even make up one-percent of all students enrolled in the district.
It’s a statistic that Judge Naman says he’s not too surprised by. “We have overwhelming numbers of very fine, incredible young people. But, those types of incidents rock our community and really make it hard for a parent to have the peace of mind to send their children to school.”
The district did not want to tell us what schools the drugs and weapons were found, saying it could jeopardize its random searches.
However, the Mobile County Public School System says they had only one on-campus gun incident during the 2019-2020 school year. Two students took a picture with a gun, but did not threaten anyone. Both students were expelled.
LATEST STORIES:
- Ball security at the top of the list for Bills offense vs. Ravens
- Dog taken in stolen car in Denver found 2 weeks later
- ‘Strong evidence’ suggests Capitol rioters intended to ‘capture and assassinate’ officials, US prosecutors say
- Biden to lay out plan to ramp up COVID-19 vaccine distribution
- What else is in Biden’s $1.9T coronavirus plan? $15 federal minimum wage, expanded paid leave
