PORTLAND, Maine — Riverton Elementary School was locked down for a short time Friday morning after a student brought a gun into the building.
Portland Superintendent of Schools Emmanuel Caulk said the gun was not loaded and was confiscated from the unidentified student.
The incident forced a short lockdown of the Forest Avenue school while officials and police investigated, according to Caulk.
The school since has returned to its normal academic day, Caulk said. Police and school officials are investigating the matter.
No children were hurt during the incident. The school houses students in grades K-5.
How does that happen? If the student’s Dad is a local surgeon and has the gun for home defense…it’s bad. If the student’s Dad is a local drug dealer.. it’s bad. If the student’s Dad is a cop… it’s bad. I’m anxious to see what situation allowed a child to obtain a gun and bring it into the classroom. Ricky…you got some splaining to do.
The parents should be charged along with their son. Does not matter what the parents do for a living. It is past time to charge all parents for their kids very bad actions.
This is a K-5 school …so a 5th grader is 10 right? Do you really think they are going to indict a kid that young for something that is clearly negligence on the part of the guardian? If the student is as old as 10 many will compare this to the girl involved with the death of the infant under her mother’s care for babysitting. Not the same deal to me.
I would suggest community service for parents and their child. Many valuable life lessons are learned at an early age when helping others in need. How harsh would that be? But what he did was wrong, and he should have known better at his age.
At the age of 10, he/she should know that guns are not toys, and should be left alone. Yes, the guardian was negligent, and should face the consequences. The child is in the wrong as well though.
I think the circumstances will dictate what ever fines or punishments are handed out. The child should know better, but obviously did not.
The child may have known better, and done it anyway. I’m just saying that absolving the child of responsibility, and putting it all on the guardian, isn’t the answer.
The gun may have been left out- negligence on the adult’s part, and inability to leave things alone that aren’t yours on the child’s part.
The gun may have been locked up and the child knew where the key was kept. NOT negligence on the part of the adult, and completely the fault of the child.
I’d bet a George Washington that the child does not get a punishment beyond what the school system might dish out.
We all should hope that a big lesson is learned from this. Hope we hear the outcome.
Exactly my thought. I immediately reflected on the boy who was removed from his mother’s care recently because he took marijuana brownies to school and shared them. Looks as if this kid, who took a lethal weapon to school, will probably get off with a slap on the wrist. I’d be curious to know what the economic and/or social differences are between the two families. I don’t see anything here about the police rushing to the boy’s home as a follow up of the incident.
What a precocious little tot!
Gangsta’ like
I hope this student is severely punished…. example of bad parenting
Not sure if serious!
I’m serious
All I know is that kid’s not gonna be going to that school for awhile
I will now wait for the stories to appear that read back in 1902 we brought our guns to school all the time and nobody gave a darn tootin and that is how it should be today.
Edit: In case your sarcasm meter is broke, the above is sarcasm.
You are a riot. It is obvious to me that you haven’t a clue how a civilized society should behave..
I hope you know I’m not being serious.
You know, it’s funny that you should bring it up, but a number of my classmates were in the habit of bring guns to school back in the late ’80s, particularly this time of year. Of course, that was in high school, not K-5, and they left them in the parking lot, but at the time nobody seemed particularly bothered, or even surprised. The back window of a hunter’s pickup was the rifle’s natural habitat in these parts back then.
Of course, you’d be daft to do that now – I seem to recall there’s a federal law about bringing a firearm even as close to a school building as the parking lot – but clearly that’s not what’s going on in this case anyway. Some small individual evidently didn’t get a couple of different memos here. :)
The story seems a bit shy on details. Did the pistol have a lock on it? Maybe the parent locked it but did not lock it up etc. I’m reaching for a glimmer of explanation.
doesn’t even say its a pistol… extra shy on details.
Ironically, the one thing we do know is that it wasn’t loaded – that is, was about as dangerous as an unabridged dictionary.
Well, you’re right, maybe a revolver. It’s hard to imagine he’d be able to sneak a rifle to or into school. Oh, there i go again assuming it’s a boy. It might have been a girl with kentucky rifle or a blunderbuss. The story does not help.
Living The Good Life in Porkland Maine
didnt you know it was SHOW and TELL time
How in the world could this even happen? We are talking about kids that range from 5/6 to 10/11 years old?! How is it that the parent(s) had no idea that their kid walked out of their house with a gun?! Please don’t tell me that this is the fault of Obama being re-elected – I am so sick of everything being blamed on the Presidental admin.
Nope, still George Bush’s fault.
Dear parents: Are you smarter than a fifth grader?
Let’s wait for details…. Could have been a BB pistol, paint ball gun, who knows….None of it makes it right but understanding the whats and hows goes a long ways in stuff like this.
according to reports—real gun-hand gun, ( no bullets), 10 years old , and brought it to school 2 weeks ago, too
As long as we left our guns in the office at school, No one had a problem with it…. We had to leave our beer and pot in the cars though…
Sounds like your school was way too strict and I sure hope you were able to overcome this kind of abuse at such a young age.
So he could continue on his way to becoming an upstanding member of society and/or a pill(ar)of the community?
Or more,man
Wait for the complete story to come out. I am willing to bet it was an Airsoft gun or something of thet nature versus a real gun.
REAL gun .