Metro-east middle school student is third this week to try to bring gun to school
A student’s attempt to enter the Wirth Middle School School building with a weapon was thwarted by security guards, district officials say.
Cahokia School District 187 Superintendent Arnett Harvey said the incident occurred Thursday morning at the start of the school day.
“A student attempted to enter our building, but all of our children have to go through our security check,” Harvey said.
The student was detained immediately at the school entrance and never reached the inside of the building, he said.
“We immediately notified the authorities,” Harvey said. “They dispatched officers to our building and we handled it from that standpoint.”
Harvey would not say what grade the student was in, but confirmed he was a student enrolled at Wirth Middle School, 1900 Mousette Lane.
“I am not trying not to get ahead of ourselves in sharing more than we should at the moment,” he said.
The superintendent said he was alarmed that a student attempted to bring a gun to school in his district, especially given the deaths of a 15-year-old student and teacher who were allegedly shot and killed by a former student at Central Visual and Performing Arts High School in St. Louis.
On Tuesday, a student was arrested for attempting to carry a gun past a checkpoint at East St. Louis Senior High School. East St. Louis District 189 officials also confirmed that, on Wednesday, a student at Dr. Katie Harper Wright Elementary School was reprimanded for bringing a BB gun to school.
“I think in our day to day environment, any activity involving a weapon on any of our campuses would be alarming,” Harvey said. “You can never guess when something is going to happen.
“We live in this community. We all know what happened recently, unfortunately, over in St. Louis public schools. None of us want a repeat of any of those types of activities and don’t wish it on any other district as well.
“But, we also know our children in this post-pandemic era — if I can call it that — have been trauma affected to a great degree. Some of them, unfortunately, do things I would like to believe are out of character.
“It seems these things are happening more often. What we as school officials have to do to ensure the safety of all of our students and our staff is that we have these measures in place and checkpoints that children have to pass through.”
Harvey said the student who brought the gun will not be allowed to return to school at least until an investigation is completed and a hearing is held by the district’s board of education.
