Student brings BB gun to McKinley Elementary
A south Salem fourth grader brought a BB gun to school Tuesday and showed it to a classmate, resulting in a police call.
A parent of a McKinley Elementary student contacted the principal after their student came home for the day and reported seeing a gun at school, district spokesman Aaron Harada said. The report was made around 3 p.m. Tuesday, 45 minutes after school got out for the day, according to a message to families from Principal Sandie Price.
A district security and law enforcement investigation found it was a BB gun, the message said.
McKinley families received the message Tuesday evening. BB guns are a type of air gun that fire small pellets and are often used for recreation. They can cause serious or occasionally fatal injuries and should not be used by people under 16, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.
The student did not make any threats toward other students, the message said.
District spokesman Aaron Harada said Thursday he didn’t have other information about the incident readily available, including what consequences the student would face. Schools typically don’t share such information to protect student privacy.
“As a reminder, weapons and look-alike weapons such as BB or airsoft guns, or other toy weapons have no place in our school. There are consequences for bringing these types of items to school and at a minimum, they impact the learning environment and sense of safety within our school. Please talk to your child about what is not allowed in our schools,” Price’s message said.
State law requires schools to expel students who bring firearms to school, but that law does not apply to BB guns, Harada said.
Dispatch records show Salem police were called around 3:30 p.m. Harada said no officer responded to the school, located at 466 McGilchrist St. S.E., since students had gone home for the day and it wasn’t an active threat.
Police spokesman Sgt. Jon Hardy said he couldn’t immediately access other details about the incident, but said generally violations involving elementary school students are handled without officers taking a child into custody or transporting them to the Marion County Juvenile Department.
Contact reporter Rachel Alexander: [email protected] or 503-575-1241.
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Rachel Alexander is Salem Reporter’s managing editor. She joined Salem Reporter when it was founded in 2018 and covers education, economic development and a little bit of everything else. She’s been a journalist in Oregon and Washington for over a decade and is a past president of Oregon's Society of Professional Journalists chapter. Outside of work, you can often find her gardening or with her nose buried in a book.
