Police arrest 17-year-old student for bringing gun to Puyallup High School

PUYALLUP, Wash. — A student at Puyallup High School was arrested for taking a gun to school on Thursday.

Friday morning, as students showed up for school, some were just finding out about the incident.

“‘When did you find out about yesterday’s incident that a student brought a gun to school?’ Just this morning,” said student Samantha Walk.

“When they don’t tell us stuff like this I feel like we are not as safe,” said another student who wanted to remain anonymous.

Students feel like the school was not transparent about the situation.

“I feel like a big concern is that our school doesn’t care much about keeping the students as informed as they do about keeping things like this quiet.”

One parent told KIRO 7 that when he showed up to pick up his daughter Thursday around 2:30 p.m., he saw a student in handcuffs being escorted out.

Then hours later he received an email from the school saying that just before dismissal, students reported a 17-year-old student had a gun.

Police say the student was taken into custody for investigation of unlawful possession of a firearm and possession of a dangerous weapon on school grounds. He was booked into Remann Hall.

“I think the student did the right thing, they reported to the faculty, the faculty took care of it and I feel confident,” said parent Tracy Jones.

The district says there was no lockdown because the student was already isolated in the front office when the report was made.

Police believe the student did not intended to harm anyone, but what has students stressed is the fact that a student went an entire day with a gun on him.

“I think they definitely should be enforcing more stuff because clearly, it’s really easy for people to bring weapons on campus without any repercussions till after school,” said a student.

The district says this is the third incident this school year, and says the students are expelled for an entire year.

These other instances occurred at Ballou Junior High and Glacier View Junior High.

Thursday’s incident isn’t the first time during this school year that a student has brought a gun to a local high school.

Within the first two weeks of school, there were two gun-related incidents at Capital High School in Olympia. One incident happened on the first day of class.

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