Providence School Board addresses incident at Delsesto Middle School
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) — A meeting Wednesday night by the Providence Public School board brought community members and board members to talk about an incident involving a student bringing a gun to a middle school.
The incident happened on October 12, at Delsesto Middle School, but board members said the school never went into lockdown.
On top of the school not going into lockdown, parents and community members said the district didn’t do enough to keep them in the loop.
“Apparently some things transpired last Thursday, and I was shocked and dismayed as I got notifications from other community leaders, other parents, and a lot of the people sitting behind me that they were not notified of such firearms that were prevalent in schools where they should not have been,” one community member expressed at Wednesday’s meeting.
According to Providence police, a teacher found a gun and an extended magazine inside a student’s backpack.
Staff at Providence schools later confirmed the gun was not functional at the time, and the student, who is under 18-years-old, was charged with carrying a firearm on school grounds.
“It’s happened way too many times in this country and our elected officials have not done anything around that issue that my heart dropped, maybe even shed a couple tears because I understand what that means. So when I saw that story, when I heard that, I felt that. I fear that happening in Providence,” says school board member Travis Escobar.
Wednesday’s comments were only part of the discussion, as the board later went into private session to discuss the issues of safety at Providence schools.
“I think that today, we’ll be able to provide or be provided with some additional information and insight on what exactly happened, but not only just that, also what can we do moving forward and did we in fact, follow the policy and protocol — Because from the outside looking in – even from the inside looking out, it doesn’t seem as if we followed it,” Providence School Board member Ty’Relle Stephens said.
The incident is still under investigation by the Providence Police Department.
