GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Grand Rapids Public School banned backpacks Wednesday after another student brought a gun to school.
This is the fourth time GRPS staff found a gun on a student during the 2022-2023 school year.
GRPS says a third grader had a loaded gun in their backpack Wednesday at Stocking Elementary School.
READ MORE: Backpacks banned from GRPS after loaded gun found on 3rd grader
Just one week prior, a seven-year-old brought a gun to César E. Chávez Elementary School.
“We just met like this a week ago. I would think that the press that we had around a seven-year-old walking into a school with a gun would have been enough that people would have seen that and be like, ‘wow,’” GRPD Chief Eric Winstrom said Wednesday. “Adults in Grand Rapids, we really have to understand, like, take gun safety seriously. Lock up your guns. Keep your guns away from children.”
That gun found at César Chávez was not loaded, and the student did not have ammunition, nor did they make any threats.
READ MORE: Gun pulled from student at César E. Chávez Elementary School
A Burton Middle School student was found with an unloaded handgun last October.
Then, in January, a 13-year-old was arrested for bringing a loaded handgun to Burton Middle.
Burton Elementary and Middle School now have metal detectors at the entrance.
“A backpack ban and that is a drastic step but we think it’s a necessary step because we want to ensure the safety of not only our scholars but our staff and our community,” GRPS Superintendent Leadriane Roby said Wednesday during a press conference. “I think it’s important that I acknowledge that it might cause some inconvenience for families and that is not the intent. This is about safety.”
District officials hope the backpack ban will prevent students from bringing unsafe items, including weapons, to school.
FOX 17 talked with Tajon Parks who has two sons at Dickinson Elementary.
“There’s people out here really doing what they can to keep their kids safe but if another person isn’t, it could be a problem,” Parks said.
Meanwhile, Chief Winstrom urges parents to be proactive.
“Here’s children, seven and eight years old, taking an interest when they see there’s something dangerous in this backpack that could kill people in this room,” Chief Winstrom said. “I think it’s important that the parents, that the mothers and fathers and mother figures and father figures in this town take just as great of an interest, a much greater interest, in looking at that backpack.”
“Keep it secure, you know, keep it in a safe, locked away,” Parks added. “There’s no reason kids should even be around and know you even have it…Our kids don’t even know we have it.”
The district-wide backpack ban will remain at least through the end of the school year.
“I don’t like how they’re punishing us because another [student] brung a gun to school,” Rihanna Durr, a GRPS student, told FOX 17 Wednesday. “We need to have metal detectors, or we could just have the teachers check our bag every day.”
The district has a safety forum scheduled for Saturday, May 20 from 1 p.m.- 3 p.m. at GRPS University.
District leaders and community members will be there to talk about school safety challenges and ways to improve moving forward.
GRPS answered some frequently asked questions Wednesday about the new bag ban:
- Ban applies to large-sized bags that can conceal a weapon the size of a firearm
- Small compacts to carry personal hygiene items are allowed
- Clear bags are not allowed
- Reasonably-sized bags for lunch are allowed
- Students with musical instruments can bring them in their cases
- Any bag or case may be subject to search
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