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Public school district officials in Grand Rapids, Mich., say they have banned students from wearing backpacks following the fourth confiscation of a firearm so far this school year.
District officials made what they called a "difficult decision" on Wednesday after a loaded handgun was discovered in the backpack of a third-grade student. Three of the four incidents involved weapons hidden in backpacks.
"This is not a decision we've taken lightly and we know this poses a significant inconvenience for our families," Grand Rapids Public Schools Superintendent Leadriane Roby said in a statement.
"I am more than frustrated that a decision like this is necessary, but we must put safety first and that's what this decision is about," she said. "This is just one step in an ongoing conversation about how we can best protect our children in our rapidly-changing world."
Roby said the backpack ban is to remain in effect through the end of the school year, adding that school safety protocols and supporting technology are being "enhanced."
Larry Johnson, the district's executive director of public safety and school security, told reporters the gun was discovered at Stocking Elementary School when an 8-year-old student dropped their backpack and a fellow student realized it was heavier than it should have been.
Wednesday's incident followed the previous gun discovery by just a week, he noted, calling the proliferation of firearms "a crisis in our community, a crisis in our country, and we want folks to know what's happened in Grand Rapids right now."
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Not understanding what they’re doing.
Instead of focusing on these kids we would make a lot more progress if we started prosecuting the adults responsible for allowing children to access firearms
You know, politicians, NRA lobbyists and gun manufacturer execs
I hate the new lib take of going after the parents like that will do anything other than just be a way to retroactively get "justice"
At the very least, if your 8 year old child is found with a gun, you should not be allowed to continue to own a gun.
I don't disagree with this part at all. Just the post shooting trying the parents for manslaughter part
if you can't stop your kid from taking your gun to school, you shouldn't have a gun
Id bet the parents are teaching there kids to shoot and sending them to school to be the good guy
Time to remove privacy and do nothing to help the children. For the children!!
Yeah. Iirc there was just a school in the area who got in trouble for chanting racist things at predominantly black schools at sporting events.
99% of west MI is just incredibly racist and conservative. Really just saturated with the worst boater republican types too. Really wish it was better since I like GR, have a lot of good people in the middle of this trash
:deeper-sadness:
Its a really good city with a lot of really lib and really conservative problems. Handful of cool trans people though I've heard.
Currently a bunch of conservative groups and moneyed landholders are trying to turn Kalamazoo into a little Grand Rapids since they priced everybody out of Kent County.
I bet there's a carveout for people in sports.
Back in the late 90's my high school banned backpacks even though nobody had be bringing guns to school but said it was perfectly okay for the sports/cheerleaders to bring huge gym bags.
This policy continued even after a jock got busted for bringing a pistol to school in their gym bag with the express intent of threatening another student.
:chefs-kiss:
That's only done in schools that fail the :us-foreign-policy: test
i always
take a bomb in my carryonsend my kid to school with a gun, because the odds of two people doing that are miniscule.I keep thinking my expectations for this country have reached rock bottom and yet somehow it keeps being worse than I expect :amerikkka:
