Providence Schools Under Criticism for Handling of Incident of Student With Loaded Gun
Friday, October 13, 2023
The Providence Public School Department is under fire for its handling of an incident in which an 8th-grade student brought a loaded gun to Del Sesto Middle School.
As GoLocal first reported, according to police, a teacher searched a student’s “suspicious-looking backpack” — and found a gun with an extended magazine and bullets.
School officials confiscated the backpack and police were called. The student was taken to Central Station for questioning and transported to the training school. He is facing charges, including possession of a weapon on school grounds.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTThe school was not placed in lockdown. And there are allegations that the PPSD failed to take proper steps.
As a result, parents, a school board member, and the top teacher’s union official are all raising concerns.
Ty’Relle Stephens, a member of the Providence School Board, is deeply concerned about the lack of actions and failure to follow policies.
“This situation has prompted me to reexamine our safety and security protocols, which were a point of concern last school year when we discussed transitioning to ALICE training. According to our current lockdown procedure, in the event of a dangerous situation occurring inside the school building, a lockdown should be enacted. This entails no movement inside or outside the building, with all students and staff remaining sheltered in their locations,” said Stephens in a letter.
Further, Stephens said, “Authorities must be contacted immediately, and parents should be notified as soon as it is safe to do so. No one should be allowed to enter or exit the building until authorities have given clearance.”
Stephens added that “following a thorough review by my legal team, it is clear that, in the presence of a loaded firearm in the building, irrespective of its functionality, the school should have initiated a lockdown. Furthermore, our procedure specifies that due to safety concerns, the school is expected to notify families within 15 minutes via Kinvo text message whenever possible, and a follow-up letter should be sent within 24 hours to provide additional context and details of the school's response.”
“I would like to confirm whether such notifications and procedures were followed in this instance. Also, I would appreciate it if you could confirm whether the Providence Police were contacted, and if so, I kindly request a copy of the police report for our records,” Stephens said.
Concern by the Teacher’s Union
Maribeth Calabro, president of the Providence Teacher’s Union, tells GoLocal, “Our teachers are very concerned that the adjacent elementary school sheltered in place but the middle school did not lock down.”
"The PTU was notified by many very concerned teachers about an incident involving a weapon at DelSesto Middle School [Wednesday] afternoon. I reached out to the District to express our concerns for the students, teachers and staff of DelSesto and questioned the events that took place and what procedures took place. The District assured me that all proper protocols and procedures were in place and the weapon was found without incident. I have continued to get calls and texts from parents, community leaders, and faculty regarding this event,” said Calabro.
“This is a serious incident and the Union, our teachers, and the community are concerned about the safety of the school. Collectively, we need to address this and similar issues involving guns in our schools. We need to work with our community, our families, city and state leaders to ensure that these occurrences do not happen again. We are grateful that this incident did not result in harm or injury to any student or staff member but must be hyper-vigilant in addressing this issue,” said Calabro.
PPSD Response
Providence Public School Department defended its response, stating in an email to GoLocal, “Lockdowns are initiated when there is a potential unsecured weapon or threat within the building. In this case, the weapon was discovered after school personnel searched the student’s bag, believing he had potentially stolen items from the school. At that point, the gun was secured and there was no cause for a lockdown. Further, we have no confirmation that the gun was brandished or any threats were made to any member of our school community."
GoLocal asked why a lockdown would not be necessary to determine if there are not multiple students and weapons involved like a Columbine, Colorado incident. In the 1999 Columbine shooting, two students killed 13 at their high school. PPSD did not respond to the question.
Further, PPSD refused to provide a copy of its written policy or confirm if there is a written policy. PPSD cited a provision in the Access to Public Records Act (APRA) claiming that they were exempt from releasing a policy. The APRA exemption states, "All documents prepared by school districts intended to be used by school districts in protecting the safety of their students from potential and actual threats." But, got GoLocal was not asking for a security plan; it was specifically seeking the policy on notification.
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