Parents Meet With Principal After Teen Arrested For Gun At School
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Parents were attending a meeting at John Marsh Elementary School on Friday, after complaining that they weren't officially notified about a teen's arrest for bringing a gun to school until after they'd read about it on Facebook.
CBS 2's Chris Martinez reports a 13-year-old boy was arrested at Marsh, at 9822 S. Exchange Av., on Wednesday, after bringing an unloaded revolver and some bullets to school, and placing them in his locker.
The principal did not notify parents until more than 24 hours after the arrest, and by then some had already found out about the arrest on Facebook.
The principal had said he didn't immediately notify parents of the arrest, because he wanted time to gather all the facts about the case.
But parents said that wasn't good enough.
Parents were meeting with the principal on Friday to discuss school security. The meeting grew quite heated at points, and a few parents were kicked out of the meeting.
Most parents who left Friday's meeting said they weren't getting any clear answers.
"Why couldn't we know the same day about this whole situation? Why did they wait?" Jeane Hernandez said. "They said they had to follow procedures. Do they follow procedures for all the other incidents that they do in the school? I don't think so."
Some parents said they were also not satisfied with what they were told about plans for possible security upgrades at the school.
"The principal's idea for new security measures at the school is having parents sell lemonade and raffles so that he can buy another … metal detector for the front door," Jason Vasquez said.
Victoria Beleon asked, "Where are we gonna go from here? Are you going to hire more security guards? It's not just our children, there's also staff in there. No one in this building is replaceable. No one."
Some parents said they were considering taking their parents out of the school over the incident.
