Families express concern after loaded gun found at middle school

By Alani Letang

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    SALINAS, California (KSBW) — In Salinas, a loaded gun found in a student’s backpack at Washington Middle School has parents, the Salinas Union High School district, and police talking.

Salinas police say when it comes to situations like this, the conversation starts at home getting parents involved in their student’s lives. Some parents have said they feel the districts need to provide more social and emotional support, while others have said the district needs to increase its safety measures.

Sending students back into school has been scary for some parents. KSBW asked Washington Middle School parent, Robert Berumen, “Do you feel safe sending your children to school here?” Berumen answered, “I’d say about 50/50.”

Belin Rodriguez, another parent, added, “I was nervous. I was scared but you pray and hope for the best.”

Washington Middle School parents feeling concerned after a 13-year-old boy brought a loaded 9-millimeter semi-automatic gun to school. He is not being charged in the juvenile court system.

“This type of incident in itself is rare. It doesn’t happen too often, but it has happened. As to why there is a lot of questions we also ask that we don’t have an answer to. Where did these kids get these weapons? And then decide to bring them on the campus,” said Miguel Cabrera with Salinas Police Department.

Officers found the gun during a routine random search with their K-9 unit around 12:15 p.m. However, parents said they didn’t find out until 5:30 p.m. when the district sent out an email.

Rodriguez said, “It’s all about communicating, being respectful being safe. They really push it on the kids so I’m pushing back at you Washington MS … Salinas Union HS, be safe, be respectful, be responsible to the parents also.”

The district superintendent released a statement:

“At approximately 12:15 p.m. on September 7, 2021, the Proactive K-9 services unit conducted a routine random search on the Washington Middle School campus. During the search, the K-9 alerted on a backpack. Upon inspection of the backpack contents, a loaded gun was discovered. A student was identified as the owner of the backpack. They admitted to possession of the weapon.

This is the second discovery of a gun on a District campus in the last month. Although in this case the routine searches and safety protocols helped protect our campus, we understand that these incidents create a ripple effect in the community in terms of school safety.

The return to in-person schooling has shown us that students have greater social and emotional needs than ever before. Thus, we encourage families to utilize the resources available at schools if their student is being bullied, harassed, or threatened. We also remind everyone that weapons on campus will not be tolerated.

In addition to the regularly assigned administrative staff at WMS, more resource staff will be on campus including the assigned, armed, School-Based Probation Officer.”

The support mentioned is what Washington Middle School parent Cesar Lara, advocated for.

“This is a cry for support. Those services that they are providing need to be quadrupled. We need to make sure that we spend part of education, time really helping kids reacclimated back into society,” Lara said.

The school board is expected to hear a staff report on school safety at their next board meeting, Tuesday, Sept. 14.

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