JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – An elementary school is the last place any parent would want to hear about a student with a gun on campus. Yet, the I-TEAM has discovered it has happened twice in Duval County over the last two school years.
An 11-year-old at Sadie Tillis Elementary brought a loaded gun in his backpack to the Westside school in September of 2015. It happened again, this week, at Chaffee Trail Elementary -- which is also on Jacksonville's Westside. We are still waiting for the district to release more details about the student involved and whether or not that gun was loaded.
WATCH: I-TEAM: Young Guns Part 1 | I-TEAM: Young Guns Part 2
The I-TEAM has spent months sorting through school police reports from the fall of 2014 through the beginning of this school year. We found 75 percent of the students caught with guns during this time period were 16 years old or younger. Five of them attended middle school.
Jeb Stuart Middle School
Jeb Stuart Middle School had the most incidents of guns found on campus between 2014 and the start of the 2016-2017 school year.
A 13-year-old boy was caught with a .380 semi-automatic pistol in his backpack. There was one live round in the magazine, which was hidden in his pants. Police say he told them he needed protection after someone posted a threat on Facebook to “jump him.”
"Wow, a 13-year-old? Wow.” That’s how Cheryl Wall reacted when we called her to tell her the gun confiscated from that 13-year-old was the same one she had reported stolen from her home in St. Johns County two years earlier.
“I was in shock when you called us and told us it was found,” Wall said.
She said no one from the St. Johns County or Jacksonville sheriff’s offices even told her that her gun had been recovered. She said it was stolen from a gun safe -- along with another firearm that was hidden under her bed -- when she and her husband were not home.
Somehow, this gun traveled 45 miles over a two-year period, ending up in the backpack of the 13-year-old.
“Look at all the school shootings we’ve had. Look at the history of our United States with gun shootings. That frightens me,” Wall said.
The other two students discovered with guns at the middle school brought them on the same day, Oct. 2, 2014. According to the police reports, the boys are 14-year-old cousins. One had a .38 caliber revolver with four bullets in the magazine hidden in his pants. The other had a revolver loaded with six bullets, in his pocket, although no bullet was chambered. School board police redacted portions of all the reports we requested, so it is unclear why the boys were carrying guns. All we know is that there was some kind of argument at school.
Other Duval County middle schools where students had guns
A 13-year-old student from Mandarin Middle School brought his father’s unloaded gun to school in October of 2015.
That boy’s mother told the I-TEAM the family had recently moved and had several items in boxes, including that gun. She insists her son accidentally brought the firearm to school.
A 15-year-old student at Matthew Gilbert Middle School was arrested in April 2016 when a gun was found in his pocket. There were four bullets in the magazine. An anonymous witness tipped off school leaders to the gun.
Guns in Duval County high schools: By the numbers
Between January 2014 and August 2016, 13 high school students were found with guns. Many of the incidents involved 16-year-old boys. At least seven of the guns were loaded. Three of the students told police they were carrying the guns for protection against non-students. Two other teenagers told police the weapon was for protection against another student.
The incidents involved schools across the county:
- Westside: Two guns at Robert E. Lee High School, one gun at Westside High School
- Arlington: Two guns at Terry Parker High School, one Terry Parker High School student found with a gun walking on the sidewalk at Fort Caroline Middle School
- Brentwood: Two guns at Andrew Jackson High School
- Northwest Jacksonville: Two guns at Ribault High School
- Southside: One gun at Wolfson High School
- Beaches: One gun at Fletcher High School
- Mandarin: One gun at Mandarin High School
Interactive map of all arrests (hover over red locator dot to get information):
The redacted police reports do not reveal much information about how the students came into possession of these guns. One report says one of the guns found at Lee High School was stolen a few days earlier from an unlocked car. Another gun was reportedly purchased via Facebook for $20. Two other students at separate schools told police they found their guns at bus stops.
DOCUMENTS: Read arrest reports from each gun incident
St. Johns County
Only one gun was found at a St. Johns County district school during the time frame the I-TEAM investigated. In April of 2015, a .38 caliber Smith and Wesson revolver was discovered in an 18-year-old student’s car parked at Creekside High School. According to the police report, the student knew it was in a storage compartment in the back of his SUV. The gun was loaded. The student did not have a concealed weapons permit.
Clay County
Three guns were found at Clay County schools between the fall of 2014 and the beginning of the 2016-2017 school year.
In February 2016, a gun was discovered in the bed of a truck in the parking lot of a school in Clay County. The report given to us by the school district does not include the name of the school or any information about the student. All we know is the student had an AR-15 converted to a CO2 airsoft gun. Anyone walking by the truck had access to it. The student was neither arrested nor expelled.
In May of 2016, a .45 caliber pistol was found in the glove box of a male student's vehicle. According to the report, he was not arrested or expelled.
In October of 2016, a female student was in possession of a 410 gauge shotgun, a BB gun, five knives, four marijuana pipes, four razor blades, a bong, a pack of cigars, and 0.9 grams of prescribed drugs in the parking lot of an unnamed school. We do know she was arrested and then expelled.
Local father explains why his son was armed at school
Ron Pascal's 17-year-old son, Theo, was caught with a gun at Jacksonville's Terry Parker High School.
"I cried like a baby. This is the worst thing that could happen,” the father told the I-TEAM about the moment he learned of his son's arrest. “He doesn’t have a history of fighting. He doesn’t have a history of weapons. He doesn’t have any prior charges.”
Pascal said his son came to him just a few days before his arrest, explaining that he was having trouble with a group of boys at Terry Parker.
“I began to pick him up from school and drop him off, and I explained to him to just try to stay out of trouble during school and to go to an authority if something were to happen,” said Pascal, who thought he was helping his son avoid any run-ins with the students. "But obviously, he took matters into his own hands.”
“Some threats were made and the threats weren’t just, 'I’m gonna come beat you up,' but it was 'I’m gonna come spray you,' meaning 'I’m gonna shoot you. I’m gonna kill you,'” said Octavius Holiday, Theo’s defense attorney, describing the stress Theo was under when he made the decision to arm himself.
Holiday said the 17-year-old was new to the school, and a rumor had spread that Theo said something mean about another student. When Theo was arrested, he not only had a gun, but also a night stick in his locker.
Ron Pascal acknowledges that his son was wrong to bring any kind of weapon to school.
“It’s a sad state when you take a young man who is new to a school and who feels that he needs to arm himself,” said Pascal. “I don’t know what we can do as a society, but it definitely needs to be addressed, because you have kids arming themselves and lives are being put in danger.”
Theo was expelled from Terry Parker High School. Because he had no history of arrests, Duval County Circuit Court Judge Linda McCallum decided against sending Pascal to prison, and instead, sentenced him to probation.
Superintendent Vitti responds to gun arrests
The I-TEAM went to Duval County Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Nikolai Vitti with what we uncovered through our school gun investigation. We wanted to know his plan to fight the problem and keep children safe.
“It’s unacceptable to bring a weapon to school,” explained Vitti when we asked him about Theo Pascal and his fear, which led to him bringing a gun on campus.
“There has to be a willingness to come forth and talk to the administration,” Vitti said. He explained that Theo himself or his father should have told a teacher or an administrator at the school that the teen felt threatened.
“You have to give us the opportunity to problem solve and to bring all the parties together through mediation and conflict resolution,” Vitti explained.
WATCH: Full interview with Superintendent Dr. Nikolai Vitti
Vitti says he believes weapons brought to school are a reflection of what is going on at home or in the community.
“Time and time again, we have students bringing guns to schools, and we have no evidence at all if there was any intention of using a gun in school," Vitti said. "There’s not even any evidence that the student intended to use the gun after school. More times than not, it’s an example of trying to perpetuate a culture of bravado or machoism.”
Vitti insists parents and guardians have to talk with their student about guns, gun safety, and about solving conflict without using a weapon.
Vitti did say the district has increased random searches in classes, on school buses, and in lockers. He said they are also trying to reach more parents and students through social media, reminding parents to pay attention to the contents of their student’s backpack.
“Parents need to talk to your kids about who they are hanging out with, if they have weapons in their home, are they secure and safe? Talk to your student about when and where a gun should be used,” he said.
The school district has also created the 5000 Role Models of Excellence Project. This program tries to reach at-risk students who do not have a stable home life.
Metal detectors in Duval County schools?
Vitti tells the I-TEAM he does not believe metal detectors are a solution to preventing guns from getting onto a school campus.
“Having worked in New York City in the Bronx as a teacher and as a dean of discipline where I was dealing constantly with gang-related issues, the metal detector was not a silver bullet," Vitti said. "So even with a metal detector in a high school with 4,000 students with the Bloods and the Crips, we still had weapons get into schools.”
Vitti added, ”The last thing I want is for the school to feel like a prison. I think the movement to improve these conditions is really more about more active communication with parents, parents taking ownership with what’s happening with their students, and community rallying behind their students.”