Guns have been discovered on the campuses of multiple Mississippi high schools this week.
Two Gulfport High School students were arrested on Wednesday for having a firearm at school. In McComb, there have been two incidents in which a student was caught in possession of a gun in campus facilities.
The McComb School District confirmed that firearms were discovered on campus both Monday and Wednesday. According to Superintendent Dr. Cederick Ellis, security staff at the school confiscated the weapons without incident.
“Our security folks got a tip and they got the information and once they got the information they acted on it very swiftly and confiscated the weapon from the scholar,” Ellis said of Wednesday’s incident. “That is the second one this week.”
Parents were notified of the incidents via an automated alert as soon as the firearms were discovered. The identities and ages of the students caught with guns at the high school have not yet been released.
Officer Marcus Gatlin, the district’s safety director, plans to meet with McComb Police Chief Juan Cloy to collaborate on an approach to deal with the issue of youth in the area possessing guns. Parents will also be invited to a community meeting to further discuss the matter at a later date.
“We will meet to see how we can come up with a plan to collaboratively curtail this situation because we know this is not a school district problem — this is a community problem,” Ellis said. “Once we get that plan together, that plan will be communicated to parents.”
In late May, the city of McComb instituted a curfew for residents under the age of 18 due to a spike in gun crimes among juveniles.
