Did a Belleville candidate for U.S. Senate bring a gun to a school? She says no.
A candidate from Belleville vying to replace U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin in November said she brought a gun and ammunition to a high school in northern Illinois, but now she says she “misspoke.”
Peggy Hubbard, a Republican and Second Amendment rights advocate, said twice that she brought a gun and “two clips” to a Feb. 13 debate event organized by students at Hinsdale Central High School in Hinsdale, a small suburb of Chicago.
At an event this week near Peoria, Hubbard announced she brought a gun and ammunition to the school and then posted about it on social media.
“I handed the (school) security lady my conceal carry ID. She didn’t ask if I had my weapon on me. ... I walked in with my weapon and 2 clips!” Hubbard wrote.
Hubbard told the BND on Thursday she misspoke at the event and online, saying she only brought ammunition into the school and left her gun in a lockbox in her car. She was trying to test “the theory of how safe our schools are,” she said.
“They’re trying to make me seem like a bad guy,” Hubbard said. “The fact is we have a false sense of security in our schools. ... I regret the fact that I spoke the way I did, but I was trying to get my point across.”
Bringing a weapon into a public school is a violation of state and federal law, school spokesperson Chris Jasculca said in a letter to parents.
“If Mrs. Hubbard brought a firearm into the school as she claims, then she knowingly endangered the safety of our students and staff,” Jasculca wrote. “As a result, we have officially documented the incident with representatives from law enforcement, and provided them with the audio from the forum, Mrs. Hubbard’s social media posts and information we collected via our internal investigation.”
Hubbard said police had not yet contacted her as of Thursday afternoon, but says she expects them to give her a call.
“If the police department wants to talk to me, they can,” Hubbard said. “Did I break any laws? I don’t know.”
The school’s investigation did not determine if Hubbard actually brought a gun inside the school, Jasculca said. Nor could school officials verify what kind of identification Hubbard presented when she entered the school.
But Hubbard said she presented her concealed carry identification to a security person, who did not ask for more information.
“Not one time does she ask did I have the weapon, where the weapon was,” Hubbard said. “She asked me for my date of birth and gave me a sticker to put on.”
A former police officer, Hubbard said the school needs better security overall, especially for special events.
The Hinsdale spokesperson said the school in recent years has hired more security officers, established a “fully equipped” command center, installed new security cameras and trained students and staff on active shooter response.
“With that said, we understand and appreciate how critical it is to continuously assess and evaluate the security procedures and protocols we have in place, and identify ways we can strengthen them,” Jasculca wrote in the note to parents.
Hubbard insists “the school is at fault here.”
“What good of having a sticker on your door when you’re not even checking people when they come in?” Hubbard said. “That’s what I’m going to do as senator: bring awareness.”
Hubbard is one five Republican candidates running for the GOP nomination in the March 17 primary.
This story was originally published February 20, 2020 at 4:44 PM.
