ROCK HILL, S.C. — A 14-year-old student at Dutchman Creek Middle School in Rock Hill was arrested and charged for bringing a gun onto campus Tuesday morning and pointing it at another student, police say.
Around 8:30 a.m., the Rock Hill Police Department School Resource Officer for Dutchman Creek Middle School was observing students transition classes when the students on the Elective hallway started running and yelling “someone’s got a gun.”
The School Resource Officer started going to the area where the students were running from when a staff member stated he had the student that was involved.
Police say the School Resource Officer and staff member took the 14-year-old student to the Administration Office where an
administrative search was conducted by the principal, but no firearm was located during the search.
The School Resource Officer and School Administrators continued to investigate.
Detectives say it was found during a physical altercation in the restroom, on the Elective hallway, a black handgun fell from the pants of the 14-year-old student.
Police say the 14-year-old student picked up the handgun and pointed it at the other student involved in the altercation.
This caused the students in the restroom to flee resulting in the disturbance that led the staff member and School Resource Officer to investigate, according to a news release.
Police say a search of the restroom conducted by officers yielded a black handgun being found stuffed in a toilet paper
dispenser.
The handgun matched the description given by students in the restroom at the time of the incident, according to a news release.
Police arrested the 14-year-old and took them to the Rock Hill Law Center where they were charged with Unlawful Possession of a Firearm on School Property, Possession of a Handgun by a person under 18, and Pointing and Presenting a Firearm.
Police say the 14-year-old was placed into the custody of the Department of Juvenile Justice.
Rock Hill Schools released the following statement:
We will continue to take a proactive and aggressive approach toward safety screenings in the coming days. This will continue for the entirety of our school year as it is our top priority to provide our children with a safe learning environment.
Effective immediately, we will be putting an emphasis on safety screenings and random searches in our middle and high schools.
We have a trained safety officer inside every school building who is ready to respond to incidents. These officers and security professionals are also trained to spot suspicious activity and respond to it.
We also work very closely with law enforcement to stay in tune with what is going on in our community in order to proactively address situations that could boil over into school time. We are grateful our law enforcement officers are willing to work collaboratively to alert us when issues may be brewing.
Lastly, we need our parents and guardians to join us in this effort as safety incidents start at home. We are asking our parents to also take an aggressive approach in preventing incidents by being involved with their student. We hope parents are talking to their students about reporting information to adults at their school. And if a child has social media, we hope parents will be able to monitor their usage and report anything concerning to the appropriate authorities.
Our tip line is available 24 hours a day through our app and on our website for students, staff, or parents to use: https://www.rock-hill.k12.sc.us/Page/6778
