UPDATED: Student found with loaded handgun at Auburn Freshman Campus
Editor’s note: The following report was updated at 4:30 p.m., Friday, Dec. 11.
By Joe McGehee
Staff Writer
Rockford Public School District 205 Chief Communications Officer Mark Bonne and Executive Director of Schools Earl Hernandez announced that an additional student was found with a loaded handgun at the Auburn Freshman campus today, Friday, Dec. 11. This brings the number of arrests on weapons charges to two for the day in District 205.
It was discovered the student found with the loaded handgun at Auburn’s Freshman Campus was the younger brother of the student found wearing a bulletproof vest and carrying a loaded .32-caliber handgun at the Auburn High School campus earlier this morning. (Click here for the story about the earlier arrest at Auburn.)
The 14-year-old student, arrested on the Auburn Freshman Campus, was charged with aggravated unlawful use of weapons and possession of cannabis with intent to deliver. The 16-year-old student, arrested at the Auburn High School campus, was charged with aggravated unlawful use of weapons, possession of body armor and no FOID.
“Incidents like these are the result of problems in the community spilling over into the schools,” said Bonne.
Also, Hernandez confirmed a third, unrelated, arrest at Auburn High School today. However, no information was made available about the details of the third arrest.
Check back to rockrivertimes.com for further updates on this breaking story.
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5 Comments
How interesting that the television station sites and the RRTimes site have comment pages where running commentary about the school district is visible, but the RRStar site’s comment pages for any of the school district problems for the last month are all of a sudden missing. The ability to leave comments about all stories other than school district stories still funtions, but the commets for the school district articles doesn’t work this evening.
I really wish Mr. Hernandez would not speak for staff members in our buildings. I for one am “alarmed”. What a crock.
The only reason that student had on a bullet proof vest was because he knew someone else had a gun. This student and his brother were the only ones “patted down”. Who else was concealing a loaded weapon in their baggy, saggy pants? This “isolated” incident is the tip of a much bigger iceberg. We don’t know from one day to the next who has a knife or a gun in their pants or pocket or whatever. I would put good money down that if the district was to one day, unannounced, put any of the schools in question in lockdown and go from class to class using a wand on the students, they would get a cache of weapons. The kids would go crazy texting each other about what was going on. If they’re not in lockdown, they’ll just ditch the weapons somewhere before they get checked.
We just know about the students who’ve been caught. Everyday in the high schools and some of the middle schools is an adventure in survival. As Mr. Jancek said, 5% of the students are not there to learn. That’s about 1500 kids. Spread them around the high schools and the affected middle schools and that’s a lot of learning that’s being disrupted.
Sheffield said something to students at West because she had trouble getting down the hall and they turned around and cussed her out – they didn’t treat her any different than they treated the rest of the staff. We need police back in the buildings. That’s the only person that some of these kids will obey and even some them won’t obey the police officers. Jancek is right, there are a lot of incredibly nice students in our district who are at school to get an education. Sheffield has to got to turn things back around discipline-wise so that they can get the education they want.
I would like to personally announce a CITY WIDE BOYCOTT of Dr. Sheffield. I think people should keep their kids out of public schools until she resigns. She is a liar and has no business in Rockford. There also needs to be a petition to get her out circulated as soon as possible. This woman is clueless and needs to get out of town asap! There are many, including teachers—> that feel they aren’t safe and are being completely lied to. Dr. Sheffield, you are are a poor excuse for a professional and need to get out of our city before our problems become worse!
The statement that 95% of kids are there to learn is misleading. What people aren’t being told is that the bad apples, the 5% is a small number.. there will always be a small percentage of kids that cut up and don’t want to learn…. but in Rockford’s case many of these kids are not just cutting up, ect… they are bringing guns, fighting, robbing, etc.. that’s what not being told. Sheffield needs to go! Liar.