It was scary feeling for some parents, picking up their children today.
Some were just finding out a child brought a loaded gun to school.
Decatur police arrested the 14-year-old. Another student told their parent, who tipped off police.
Bob Conner’s granddaughter is a sixth grader at the school. He lives right across the street and says he saw police cars but didn’t know what was happening. He told us, “This is the first I’ve heard of it. I didn’t see anything going on. It scares me to death.” He’s going to talk to her parents and recommend she not go to school for a couple of days.
One positive thing, while most of the parents who stopped to talk were bothered when they heard about the loaded gun on campus, they have confidence in the school’s staff and say Oak Park Middle has a history of doing what’s best for their students.
Parent Beth McClimans said, “Wow, that’s all I could think was wow This is a good school, this is a great staff and they handle things very, very well. They can tell if the kid is having a bad day, they can tell if the kid is depressed. I mean they know these kids and they know when something’s up.”
Other parents echoed the same thing, which says a lot about the school.
Decatur police say lives were never threatened.
As for the student with the gun, he’s been charged with carrying a concealed weapon.
A question parents did ask was, “Why does this keep happening?”
In Beth McCliman’s opinion? “I think that’s something the parents should be asked.”
