RICHMOND — A student at Marcia Buker Elementary School brought a loaded handgun to school Tuesday, according to Richmond police.
In a statement from Richmond Police Chief James Donnell, the student “self reported” the incident and brought the weapon to a staff member. Richmond police said there “were no threats” made toward anyone at the school and “everyone was safe.”
The student underwent interviewing from both police and school staff, according to the police statement.
Before the police statement was released at 5 p.m., Regional School Unit 2 Superintendent Tonya Arnold said on the school district’s website that students are safe “despite an incident that occurred requiring support from our local police department.”
“To protect the privacy rights of those impacted, we can not provide any more detail,” the post said, adding support will be given to those close to the situation.
Students were not dismissed from school and the bus ran as scheduled, transporting students home from school.
Parents were alerted of the incident through a text message with the same details posted on the school website and expressed frustration about the communication — or lack thereof — from RSU 2, according to some who posted in Richmond Family and Friends Facebook group.
“I am extremely upset,” parent Kelley Wullaert said. “As of now, we have not heard anything in response to the vague text we got. … This was not the right way to go about this because everyone is alarmed and worried as to what happened today at school and how it directly affects their children.”
Wullaert said she would like to know what safety precautions will be taken in the future to prevent any other incidents, along with what debriefing will be done for students and those impacted by the incident.
Tiffany Gagne, who originally asked the community through the Facebook page if anyone knew what happened, said she “respects” the need for privacy, but needs to “be able to support her son emotionally.”
“Just saying, ‘There was an incident, the cops came, your kid is fine now,’ doesn’t cut it for me,” she said.
Melissa Hackett told the group to have “patience.”
“Kids who weren’t involved probably don’t even know anything happened,” she said. “Kids who were involved, have informed parents.”
Police said the investigation is ongoing.
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