School officials in Sioux City say a 12-year-old boy brought a handgun to school this week. Superintendent Paul Gausman credits a tip, which allowed police to be present and meet the 6th grade student before classes started Monday morning.
“If there’s one message I’d like to share it’s how thankful we are that someone who saw or heard something, shared something with us so we could take some action,” Gausman said. The unidentified student at Sioux City’s North Middle School is charged with carrying a concealed weapon on school property.
“We detained that student, searched that student, and did find an unloaded weapon with no ammunition,” Gausman said. The student had a preliminary hearing in juvenile court Tuesday and is suspended from school. Classes went on as normal Monday and Gausman says there was never a threat to any individual student or staff member. Parents were notified of the incident just before 6 p.m. on Monday.
Gausman says although the school district took the incident very seriously, since there was no threat, he waited until after the school day was over before releasing information.
(Reporting by Woody Gottburg, KSCJ, Sioux City)