AKRON, Ohio — This is the second time in a week a student has been found with a loaded gun in the district, and before that, fights and stabbings have parents and students alike concerned.
A loaded gun was found on a student before a basketball game Friday at Firestone Community Learning Center.
A loaded gun was found on a student forcing a lockdown five days ago at Litchfield Community Learning Center. "The number one way we find out about weapons, plots, kids that are going to cause harm to themselves is when a kid comes forward and tells an adult they trust," Ken Trump with National School Safety and Security Services said.
School Safety Expert Ken Trump says this is a time where teacher training, and student and parent awareness is important.
"We're switching training for school staff to situational awareness, to being fully mindful and present when you're supervising kids, identifying things that are abnormal. outside the usual patterns," Trump said.
When we reached out to the district about the most recent loaded gun found, they released this statement "we thank the alert administrator whose training led her to follow her instincts and take control of the situation until police arrived."
They also pointed us to a school safety update that says the district plans to do things like expand random safety checks, increase safety team staffing and put more security technology like metal detectors, hand wands and camera surveillance in the schools, something Ken Trump says shouldn't be a primary focus.
"There's a tendency to look for something visible, something tangible, some kind of shiny object that you can point to, more metal detectors, more equipment, more hardware on the doors and it's really about the people behind the doors," Trump said.