Golden Hills School placed on 'lock down' after replica weapon spotted by teacher
Golden Hills School placed on 'lock down' after replica weapon spotted by teacher
Topics: Golden Hills Elementary, airsoft, Weapon, school
Posted by editor Tue Nov 6, 2007 17:16:31 PST
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Just a half hour before school was due to be let out today, Golden Hills Elementary School students were placed on “lock down” by Principal Pat Thomas after a teacher reported seeing two teenage boys walk past the school with what appeared to be a gun. The weapon was later identified by Kern County Sheriff’s Deputies as an Airsoft gun, which utilizes compressed air to propel a small BB-type projectile and have been noted as having a realistic appearance.
According to Sgt. Joe Giuffre, of the Tehachapi substation of the Kern County Sheriff's Department, deputies were on the scene within seconds of receiving the call.
“The teacher had great eyes to see that far away,” said Giuffre, describing the weapon as “a little dinky thing.”
“They were just walking past the school,” he said adding that one boy walked back the other direction without any apparent criminal intent. “They didn’t realize the consequences of walking by a school with something looking like a gun.”
Giuffre said the boys, both minors, were “very apologetic” and the young owner voluntarily gave up the weapon to deputies, stating, “Take it, I don’t want it.”
“There are a lot off duty officers that live up here, both with ours and other agencies, including CCI staff and a lot of these people carry guns,” Giuffre said he explained to the boys. “You see somebody waking down the road in front of a school may not able to identify that weapon as a replica or as an Airsoft gun. The way things are these days, you can end up getting shot real easy.”
Principal Thomas remained unavailable for comment, but sent home a brief notice to parents, stating in part, “We are pleased to announce the students, staff, parents and deputies did an outstanding job on our first lock down drill and every precaution was taken to ensure student safety."
Giuffre said the whole incident was over within 10 minutes.
One first grade student said, “We locked the doors and sat on the floor and had a meeting” during the last few minutes of the school day.
According to TUSD Superintendent Dr. Richard Swanson, 'lock down' consists of the following:
"A call to each classroom goes out that we are under lock down, a term that means, lock the doors now. We don’t make a big fuss about it. We get kids off playgrounds an into their rooms, close the drapes and doors, lock the door and do not let anybody in."
Giuffre said that he and Thomas had previously discussed procedure for such an incident, but have not performed drills due to the potential for parent panic.
“In this day of cell phones, panic can break out pretty fast,” he said adding that during his initial contact with school office staff, the phones were already ringing with alarmed parents calling in seeking information. “Hysteria only makes it harder for us to contain the situation, whether it’s a school situation or an accident."
Giuffre said that the best thing for parents to do under this type of cirumstance, is to wait calmly outside the perimeter and wait for instruction from law enforcement.
“We don’t need to use our resources to control hysterical parents,” he said adding that as both a parent and a 15 year SWAT team veteran, securing the children is always the primary concern.
Giuffre said the boys did not disclose where they had purchased the weapon, however, clerks at the 99 Cent store on Valley Boulevard said they sell Airsoft or other brands of replica guns on a regular basis, but not to minors and they check ID, although they were unsure if the age limit is “18 or 19.” According to managerial staff at Big 5 Sporting Goods, in
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