2nd weapon found in 2 days: Rock Hill schools student pointed gun in bathroom, police say
A student was charged Tuesday with pointing a gun at another student at Dutchman Creek Middle School in Rock Hill, police said.
No one was hurt and no shots were fired Tuesday at Dutchman Creek, said Rock Hill Police Department Lt. Michael Chavis. The gun was seized.
Rock Hill schools also are considering implementing more safety and security measures because Tuesday’s incident was the second in two days at schools in the district. A gun was seized Monday from South Pointe High School in an incident where a teen was charged.
A 14-year-old student, a boy whose name wasn’t released because of his age, was charged for the weapon at Dutchman Creek, Chavis said. The Tuesday incident at Dutchman Creek was handled by school resource officers.
It’s unclear if the gun was loaded.
Tuesday incident at Dutchman Creek
In a news release, the police department said students at Dutchman Creek started running in a hallway Tuesday morning after shouts of “someone’s got a gun.”
The gun fell from the pants of the 14-year-old student during an altercation with another student, police said. The 14-year-old then pointed the gun at the other student, police said. The gun was found in a toilet paper dispenser in a school bathroom, police said.
The altercation with the gun caused other students to flee the bathroom and yelling in the hallway, police said.
Police charged the 14-year-old with unlawful possession of a firearm on school property, possession of a handgun by a person under age 18 and pointing and presenting a firearm.
Second Rock Hill schools incident in two days
On Monday, a 16-year-old South Pointe High School student was charged with weapons crimes after a gun was found in his backpack, police said. No one was hurt in that incident Monday.
Rock Hill schools has about 17,000 students at 24 campuses.
Rock Hill schools spokesperson Lindsay Machak told The Herald in a phone interview the district will be implementing more safety measures after the two incidents in two days.
Machak said all middle schools and high schools have metal detectors, but the detectors are not used every day for all entries into the school.
Rock Hill schools superintendent Tommy Schmolze said in a statement to parents Tuesday that metal detectors not always used in schools will be used more frequently now.
The district will also use more random searches of students, Schmolze said in the statement.
Schmolze acknowledged in the statement that the district had received several calls and messages from parents concerned about safety.
Rock Hill superintendent’s full statement
Schmolze’s full statement is as follows.
“After numerous calls and concerns from parents and community members, I feel it’s appropriate to address our safety and security measures in our schools. In light of recent safety incidents in our schools, we will continue to take a proactive and aggressive approach toward safety screenings in the coming days. This will continue for the entirety of our school year as it is our top priority to provide our children with a safe learning environment.
Effective immediately, we will be putting an emphasis on safety screenings and random searches in our middle and high schools.
This policy also allows us to use metal detectors, so do not be surprised if your student comes home to tell you they were screened.
I want to assure you that some of our proactive measures have been in place this school year and will continue for the foreseeable future. We have a trained safety officer inside every school building who is ready to respond to incidents. These officers and security professionals are also trained to spot suspicious activity and respond to it.
We also work very closely with law enforcement to stay in tune with what is going on in our community in order to proactively address situations that could boil over into school time. We are grateful our law enforcement officers are willing to work collaboratively to alert us when issues may be brewing.
While these actions are all taken at the school, I cannot stress the importance of how these incidents start at home. I am asking you, as a parent or guardian, to also take an aggressive approach to helping us prevent school incidents. Talk with your student about the importance of speaking up and telling an adult something that might be suspicious. We take every single tip seriously and work with our law enforcement partners to investigate.
Social media is also something I am hoping you are involved in at home. Be diligent in watching your child’s activity and if you see something, please say something.
It takes every single one of us doing our part to ensure our students can learn in a safe environment and we are depending on you and your student to help.”
What happens now?
The student who was arrested Tuesday after the Dutchman Creek incident was placed into the custody of the S.C. Department of Juvenile Justice and will be prosecuted in Family Court.
Both students charged in the weapons cases from Monday and Tuesday have pending criminal charges.
This story was originally published August 30, 2022 at 3:50 PM.
