Parents address school board about gun issue

A sixth grader at Sallisaw Middle School has been suspended for bringing a BB gun pistol to school, and at Monday night’s school board meeting, parents voiced their concerns regarding the incident to the board and Sallisaw School Superintendent Steve Barrett.

According to Tera Long, the mother of a seventh grader at Sallisaw Middle School, the incident took place Thursday afternoon after several children reported to a counselor during afternoon recess that they saw the gun, clips and ammunition.

Multiple students also later reported the student wore a ski mask and had made threats to some of the children in the bathroom, prior to it being reported. Long said four students reported the student with a gun to the counselor. The counselor took the name of the student, and told the reporting students to go back to class. The children then let the school nurse know and the school nurse informed the School Resource Officer (SRO), who later verified the gun was a BB gun.

“Had that been a real gun, my son would be dead!” one of the parents said. The parent said her son did not go to school the next day and she wanted outside counseling to be made available to students.

Parents were not notified of the incident until after school let out, Long said.

“Really, an investigation on how the incident was handled, is what we want. We’re mainly concerned the counselor did not report it. The children had to go to a second adult before it was reported to the SRO. We want to know what the protocols are,” Long said.

“I know there have been some trainings and drills. We don’t know what those drills look like. Also, threats were made. We don’t need to know what happened disciplinary wise but we want to know there are protocols in place, in case something like this happens again. It’s a fine line between telling the parents or not telling the parents in order to avoid the craziness. I get that. But parents need to know, ‘Hey there was a minor threat but everything’s alright.’ If protocols are not good enough, we need to change the protocols,” Long said.

Long said she has a daughter who attends Sallisaw Middle School.

“That’s my kid, my only child. Her father and I have been discussing getting panels for her backpack. Does the school need to require clear backpacks or FEMA funded metal detectors? We went to a football game in Muldrow the other night and they had metal detectors there at the game. Vian has started taking officers to their ball games. What are we doing? Do we need to get clear backpacks or FEMA funded metal detectors?” she asked.

“I know a group of parents visited with the principal at the middle school and he said he does not want to turn our school into a prison. Well, I would rather send my kid to prison than be dead. All day every day.”

Although no action can be taken during the citizens presentation of the school board meeting, Barrett did say there is an investigation into the incident and he looks forward to meeting with parents, and addressing their concerns.

Barrett thanked the parents for coming to the board meeting.

“We are extremely willing to meet with all of you. You parents are the stakeholders. These are your children. I look forward to meeting with all of you and working on whatever policies we need to change, and we will. We’ll get to where we need to be,” he said.

According to a news release issued from the administration following the incident, “At no time during this incident was a firearm present at the school. Immediately upon being notified of a possible threat, administrative staff and the SRO confiscated the item, and followed school discipline and law enforcement protocols. Upon the confiscation of the BB gun, no active threat existed to the students or staff of the school. The SRO confiscated the BB gun and the student’s parents were called.”

Barrett said the district had a parents meeting with about a dozen parents attending following the incident. He also said all children involved are being offered mental health counseling.

“I feel like the meeting with the school board was productive,” Long said.

“This is just the beginning. We’ve already formed a parent committee and I just love our school. I thank Mr. Barrett for listening to us and I believe there was some progress from the meeting,” she said.

“I know they are trying to down play it was a BB gun but the gun included clips and it was a pistol resembling an actual gun. You can’t even walk into a bank and point a gun like that without law enforcement being called,” she said.