Published: October 01, 2008 11:51 am            

15-year-old accused of taking loaded gun to Floyd Central High School

A 15-year-old Floyd Central High School student is accused of taking a loaded gun to the home football game Friday night.

Sheriff Darrell Mills said two FCHS students saw the freshman with a gun and went and told George Shultz and Jason Jones, the School Resource Officers from the Floyd County Sheriff’s Department who were working at the game.

Mills said the officers searched the student and found a semi-automatic handgun in the waistband of his pants. The weapon, which was later discovered to be stolen, had a fully loaded cartridge and another bullet in the chamber.

“He said he was just trying to be cool,” Mills said of the juvenile. “Although this is still under investigation, to our knowledge, he didn’t have anybody on a list and he wasn’t looking for a particular individual to do harm to.”

Mills said he believes having the SROs in the schools helped make the students feel comfortable enough with officers to come forward once they saw the gun.

“I think it really helps us in our interaction with kids,” he said of the program. “In this particular case, it probably adverted a situation that could have been a lot worse.”

Tuesday, Louis Jensen, FCHS principal, sent a letter home to parents, informing them of the incident.

“As a parent, I understand your concern about this matter. I assure you that all school officials are also concerned. Although I feel fortunate that no one was hurt, I view this as a very serious incident,” Jensen said in the letter. “We are continuing our investigation into the matter and appropriate disciplinary measures will be taken.”

Due to privacy issues, those details can’t be released, said Dave Rarick, director of communications for New Albany-Floyd County Consolidated School Corp. He added that the corporation is conducting an investigation and working with law enforcement.

Mills said the student was arrested and taken to the Clark County Juvenile Detention Center where he will remain until his first court appearance.

Meanwhile, Mills said this is a time to honor those students who came forward. He said the two will receive a certificate from the sheriff’s department. He said he hopes to also award the students gift cards.

“We’re going to do something for them because we want to encourage kids that this is the right thing to do,” Mills said.

Jensen also praised the action of the two in his letter.

“I’m very proud of these students who had the good sense and courage to do exactly as they have been taught — to immediately tell an adult if they see any type of weapon, albeit real or toy,” he wrote in the letter.

He added that this is a good time for parents to tell their children that it is never appropriate to bring a weapon to school and that parents need to make sure all weapons in the home are secured, preferably under a lock and key.



ABOUT SRO’S

• A School Resource Officer is a certified law enforcement officer who is permanently assigned to provide coverage to a school or a set of schools. The SRO is specifically trained to perform three roles: law enforcement officer, law-related counselor and law-related education teacher.

The Floyd County Sheriff’s Department has three School Resource Officers that are assigned to Floyd County’s three secondary schools located outside the city of New Albany, but within Floyd County.

— www.fcsdin.org

        

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