The Colorado Springs Gazette final

Student faces felony for bringing gun to class

Evans Elementary parent reported incident to staff

BY BROOKE NEVINS AND NICK SULLIVAN

Deputies with the El Paso County Sheriff ’s Office arrested a student who reportedly brought a handgun and ammunition to class at Evans Elementary on Tuesday morning, the Sheriff’s Office said Wednesday.

The student, whose identity was not divulged due to his age, was booked into the Zebulon Pike Youth Services Center and charged with unlawful possession of a weapon on school grounds, a sixth-degree felony, the Sheriff ’s Office said.

According to the Colorado Department of Human Services, the youth detention center serves juveniles aged 10-17 for one of two reasons: to provide “secure placement pending a court hearing” in juvenile court or to house a juvenile serving a detention

sentence “of up to 45 days.”

The CDHS says the center conducts a juvenile’s risk and needs assessment and provides it to a court in order to identify services that “would facilitate a successful transition back into the community.”

The DA’S office can use discretion in reviewing the juvenile’s case to determine appropriate corrective measures that are “in the best interest” of the child, according to a spokesman for the 4th Judicial District Attorney’s Office.

Law enforcement responded to the school, located at 1675 Winnebago Road in the Cimarron Hills neighborhood, just after 9:30 a.m. Tuesday after a parent of an Evans Elementary student told a staff member that their child had seen another student with one round of ammunition, according to a message sent to parents by D-49 spokesperson David Nancarrow and Evans Principal Marcia Case.

The staff member then reported the information to the Sheriff’s Office and the school district’s security team, the message said. A search of the student’s backpack yielded a handgun, ammunition and a magazine.

An email notification hit parents’ inboxes around 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, and parents are divided on how they feel the situation was handled and how to move forward from here.

Ashley Rees, the mother of a fifth grader, said she would have liked more immediate notification about the situation given its severity. Otherwise, she said the school handled the situation as well as it could have.

“Up until this point, the school has been great,” Rees said. “You can’t really blame it on the school.”

Other parents say they were never notified at all. Shawndra Price, a divorced mother of two students, said her kids’ father first learned about the situation at the parent-teacher conferences later that evening. He was not the only parent who wasn’t notified, she said.

“It was very frightening to know that the system failed,” Price said. “I guess it was a learning curve to make sure that all our information was correct.”

Nancarrow said the notification reached all people in their system. The lapse in communication might be a matter of outdated data, he said, and he encourages all parents to update their school with their latest contact information.

“There is no indication the student intended to threaten, or harm, students or staff,” Nancarrow said. “After speaking with the student and the student’s parents, we believe this incident is more reflective of a misguided attempt to impress friends.”

Deputies’ investigation confirmed the message, finding that the student said he had not brought the weapon to class “to engage in violence but simply to show his friends.”

All students and staff are safe, and following the investigation, the school will “determine the appropriate next steps for the student involved,” the message to parents said.

For parent Rhonda Copeland, whose fifth grade son was in the classroom next door to the student with the handgun, answers can’t come soon enough. She considered keeping her kids at home until more information was shared on the school’s next steps.

“We never would’ve thought it would’ve happened here, but it did, and now every single time we come here it’s like, are we gonna get that call saying there’s an active shooter here? You just don’t know now,” Copeland said. “I definitely would like to know what they are doing from this day forward to keep our kids safe while they’re here.”

The situation was “terrifying,” she said, and a lack of full-time security is “unnerving.” Moving forward, Copeland said she would like to see a constant security presence at the school to ease concerns.

Evans Elementary has a combination of safety measures in place, including secured entries and armed and unarmed security guards, according to Nancarrow. He said he could not provide details on security’s schedule and whether a guard is always on duty.

The Sheriff’s Office said the investigation is ongoing as it determines how the student came to possess the handgun and ammunition.

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2022-10-06T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-10-06T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://daily.gazette.com/article/281492165209448

The Gazette, Colorado Springs