A 10-year-old student brought a gun on the school bus two days in a row before other students reported the weapon to teachers, according to records obtained by Salem Reporter.
School and police officials didn’t disclose that information in their public announcement of the Oct. 3 event, which rattled the 500 students who attend Four Corners Elementary School.
The new information raises fresh questions about how a gun could be in a school for two days without school officials knowing and why the public wasn’t told.
District officials and police this week wouldn’t explain why that information was withheld.
Press releases and communications to parents at the time stressed that the gun wasn’t loaded and police were called to the school quickly after the gun was reported to teachers.
“The gun was located after students saw the weapon and brought it to the attention of staff members at the school,” the release said.
Two students reported the gun to a teacher just before 1 p.m. on Oct. 3, and a school resource deputy with the Marion County Sheriff’s Office arrived at the school within a few minutes to confiscate the weapon, authorities said the day of the incident.
That afternoon, district officials notified members of the Salem-Keizer School District board by 2:30 p.m. and school parents via automated phone calls around 4 p.m. About an hour later, the sheriff’s office issued its press release.
By the time officials issued their statements, they had learned that the gun had been on a school bus two days in a row, emails show.
“FYI, the weapon was shown on the morning bus route 566 both today and yesterday,” wrote Lillian Govus, district communications director in an email sent at 2:33 p.m. to Mike Wolfe, the district’s chief operations officer, and Michael Shields, transportation director.
“That is not good to have happened. We will gather info on our end,” Shields responded.
Four Corners hosted two public forums for parents after the gun was discovered – one later that evening, and one the following morning.
It’s unclear if parents were told a student brought the gun on the bus, but the district’s talking points to be shared with parents didn’t include that information. Those talking points included that the gun was unloaded, that it was reported to law enforcement as soon as staff knew about it, and that the student would not be in school while the incident was investigated and that the students who reported the weapon did the right thing.
The document was obtained through a public records request.
On Friday, Govus declined to say whether parents had been told the gun was seen on a school bus twice.
She said until one year ago, communications about lockdowns and other safety threats were left up to individual principals, who often did not notify parents at all, or failed to provide information in multiple languages.
“We will always commit to being transparent in every situation,” she said. “We want to make sure that parents know the number one thing, which is that their students are safe,” she said.
The district declined to release other public records about its handling of the gun episode or its notes from the parent briefings, saying a criminal investigation of the matter was still underway. The sheriff’s office declined to release any part of its incident report, citing the investigation.
Marion County District Attorney Paige Clarkson denied without explanation a petition from Salem Reporter seeking to have the documents released.
On Monday, Lt. Chris Baldridge, sheriff’s spokesman, did disclose that there was no ammunition found with the gun and no round in the chamber. The sheriff’s office had previously said the weapon was unloaded.
Baldridge said he could not say whether the gun was loaded the first day the student brought it to school.
Baldridge said the juvenile portion of the investigation has been sent to the county’s Juvenile Department. The 10-year-old student who brought the gun is unlikely to face criminal prosecution.
But an investigation into how the student obtained the gun, which could result in criminal charges, continues, Baldridge said.
State law mandates that any student who brings a firearm to school be expelled for at least a year, though the school superintendent can modify that.
Salem-Keizer schools pioneered threat assessments that aim to keep students in school where possible and look at the motivations behind behavior that may be seen as threatening.
While many other school districts adopted “zero tolerance” policies that result in expulsions by default, the local district said it assesses each student to determine why they behaved in an apparently threatening manner.
Students sometimes bring weapons to school to show other students or because they lack judgment, said John Van Dreal, the district’s director of safety and risk management.
“If they have a motive that’s show and tell, that’s considerably different than a motive for scaring people or hurting people,” he said.
Individual schools assess about 200 to 250 students for threats each year, Van Dreal said, which may include comments posted on social media, verbal threats to harm another or bringing a weapon to school.
About 45 of those students then get assessed again by a district team that includes community experts in mental health and law enforcement.
“Sometimes we identify threats that are very credible and work to find the best way to intervene,” said Gail Winden, a counselor on that team. “Most of the time, we find that kids just overreact to things. They get fired up.”
The Four Corners incident was the first in at least a year where a student has brought a gun to a local school, but the district disciplined 139 students last year for bringing some type of weapon to school, state data shows.
Salem-Keizer schools have far more weapon incidents than other districts. Portland, the largest district in the state, reported just 21 incidents last year. Statewide, there were 1,063 total.
Van Dreal said that reflects a commitment to tackle the issue head-on, and district practice of defining “weapons” broadly.
Got a tip? Reporter Rachel Alexander: [email protected] or 503-575-1241.
