Two 14 year-olds traded guns with each other at school
Two middle school students in Jacksonville, FL, were arrested after bringing loaded handguns to J.E.B. Stuart Middle School on October 2. Another student reported the guns after a .38 caliber revolver containing four rounds fell from one of the boys’ shorts. The gun, belonging to a 14 year-old identified as Warren Jones, was not used to threaten or harm any other students. A .22 caliber pistol containing six round of ammunition was also recovered by police from 14 year-old Rodney Gibson.
The two boys claimed to have traded the guns when questioned by school police.
Thursday’s events follow a string of similar incidents in Duval County, where the two boys’ middle school is located, as seven handguns have been found at area schools in the past seven weeks. On Monday, a student was found with a gun at Chaffee Trail Elementary, according to 104.5 WOKV report.
Jones and Gibson were charged with possession of a firearm on school property and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. Jones is currently on probation for burglary, according to News 4 Jacksonville. Possession of a firearm on school grounds could also result in expulsion.
On the same day, another local teen, identified as Timothy Hayes, 18, was arrested near Wolfson High School and charged with car theft and resisting police. The Lexus which Hayes possessed the key to was found to contain two loaded handguns and marijuana. Hayes, a student of the high school, also participates in its Bridges to Success program helping troubled older students complete their education.
Commenting on the rash of guns being found at local schools, Duval County Public Schools Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said, “They’re bringing guns and knives to school as a show-and-tell of their bravado.”
The superintendent also said on Friday, “there have been weapons at schools before,” noting that he wasn’t concerned about the statistics. In 2013, nine firearms were confiscated from Duval County schools.
Local parents, however, were more worried about the recent outburst of incidents, with one mother of a J.E.B Stuart 8th grader saying, “I think we should be taking everything more seriously.”
