KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Parents at Plaza Middle School in the Park Hill School District were notified Tuesday that a handgun was found on a student.
On Tuesday, Plaza Middle School principal Adrian Singletary informed parents that a handgun was found on a student, a 12-year-old boy, at the beginning of the day.
Here is the letter sent out to parents by Singletary:
Dear Plaza Tiger Families,
This morning our school went on hold for approximately 50 minutes. We are grateful for our students and staff working to follow our protocols and procedures for being on a hold in our building. We began the hold at approximately 7:30 a.m. and all protocols worked as planned. We released the hold as of 8:20 a.m. in conjunction with law enforcement officials.
All is secure and we are currently working with law enforcement on an investigation as a result of this building hold.
This morning we found a handgun in a student’s backpack upon the student’s arrival at school. The weapon was immediately recovered and our law enforcement partners joined us at that time. Working with law enforcement partners, and in securing the weapon, our staff and students were safe. Our students and staff remained safe in their classrooms while administration and law enforcement worked through the incident.
We recovered the weapon as a result of another student reporting to us. We thank our students for being aware and then taking responsibility to report this to us.
The student is no longer at school. We will be following district handbook guidance in continuing our investigation.
Because there is now an active investigation into this occurrence, we will share what we can when we can. At this point, we wanted you to be informed of this incident so that you are aware of what caused us to be on a building hold.
We want to reiterate that all staff and students are safe and secure in our school and we plan to continue our regular school day.
Thank you for being partners in taking care of students each day. We appreciate your support and local law enforcement support during this time. If you have further questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
According to the Platte County Sheriff’s office, one student reported to officials that another student had a handgun on him.
The school went to immediate lockdown for around 50 minutes on Tuesday morning from 7:30 to 8:20 a.m.
The handgun was immediately found in the student’s backpack and was recovered by law enforcement.
He has been removed from the school and immediately taken into custody.
All students and staff members were safe from the incident.
The Platte County Sheriff’s Office is currently investigating an incident.
This is the second incident of the school year in the Park Hill School District where a student brought a handgun. In Aug. a student at Lakeview Middle School was found to have a handgun in his locker.
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