First graders get their hands on a gun intended to be used to protect them in the event of a school shooting
- The children found the gun on a desk at Highland Elementary School in Columbus, Ohio metro area in mid-March
- Vicky Nelson, the school’s transportation director, had left the firearm in an unlocked plastic case when she went to use the restroom
- Nelson’s grandson and another first-grader took the gun out of the case and left it on Nelson’s desk when she returned
- Superintendent Dan Freund said he became ‘physically sick’ when he found out
- School administrators failed to report the dangerous incident to the police
- It raises concerns about a growing movement to arm teachers to protect students from potential mass shooters
Two first graders at an Ohio school office building managed accessed a handgun brought in by a staff member, who was authorized to carry the firearm as part of a concealed carry program to protect students from potential mass shooters.
Highland Local Schools transportation director Vicky Nelson – who is also the grandmother of one of the children – was suspended without pay for three days after the mid-March incident in mid-March in South Bloomfield Township, Ohio.
Nelson was also removed from the carry program in April. She had been trained and granted permission to bring her gun on campus, according to the Columbus Dispatch.
Nelson had left her pistol inside an unlocked plastic case on her desk the day of the incident while she went to the restroom in the district’s transportation office where her grandson and another first-grader, the daughter of assistant transportation director, Christine Scaffidi, were also present.
The incident took place in mid-March at a Highland Local Schools administrative office not far from Highland Elementary School (pictured)
The school staffer returned to find the gun sitting outside the case on her desk after the children got ahold of it. Both kids were nearby after the firearm was found out of place.
When Nelson and Scaffidi told Superintendent Dan Freund about the incident, Freund said he became ‘physically sick’.
‘I’m assuming that the child picked up the gun from behind the desk and had been holding it,’ Freund told the Dispatch. ‘People were horrified.’
But the superintendent chose not to tell law enforcement about the dangerous encounter.
Morrow County Sheriff John L. Hinton said he only learned what happened last week after a local resident posted about it on Facebook. Hinton said he would have probably investigated what happened had he known earlier.
Highland Local Schools is one of more than 100 Ohio public school districts and charter school programs that have adopted concealed carry programs, which have become a popular security deterrent against mass shooters in recent years, according to Jim Irvine, president o f the Buckeye Firearms Association, which trains school personnel to use firearms to protect students, the Dispatch reported.
Morrow County sheriff’s office firearms trainer Greg Perry helped Highland Schools set up its program last year, providing four, eight-hour days of training.
‘What happened there was not consistent with the training provided, the policies and procedures or the conditions of being on the [concealed carry] team,’ he said. ‘That’s a big no-no. It’s inexcusable.’