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Loaded gun found at Starbuck school
LINDSAY FIORI
lindsay.fiori@journaltimes.com | Posted: Tuesday, October 13, 2009 5:20 pm |
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RACINE -- A loaded gun was found outside the front doors of Starbuck Middle School just before school started Friday morning, district and police officials said.
The gun was taken inside and unloaded. No one was injured, and Racine Unified School District staff said the incident is isolated and very unusual.
The gun was found by a student and a parent outside the school's front doors on a pathway around 8:30 a.m. Friday, said police and Principal Sandra Brand.
The student and parent notified Brand, who immediately went outside.
"My initial thought was that it couldn't be real," Brand said. "I've been an administrator for quite a few years now, and that's the first instance I've had of a real one."
To avoid causing alarm and to get the gun away from students as quickly as possible, Brand took the gun inside to her office where a teacher unloaded it, said district spokesman Paul Holley.
"I needed to get it out of the way," Brand said. "We had students coming into the building at the time for school."
Racine police then responded to the school, 1516 Ohio St., department spokesman Sgt. Bernie Kupper said. He said Brand did the right thing by moving the gun "rather than leave it there when there's kids and parents around."
Kupper said Brand and her staff could have placed a garbage can over the gun, which renders it not visible while also preserving its location and any fingerprints for police, who could make sure the gun was safe and not in a firing position before removing it.
"In the perfect world, they would call police right away and stand over the firearm, leaving it where it lies," Kupper said. "(But) its evidentiary value is less important than the safety of everyone around."
On Friday, Starbuck sent a memo about the incident to staff and also sent a letter home with students, Brand said.
"All we know is what the (police department) knows," Holley said.
Unified will not investigate who put the gun there, Holley said, and according to Kupper Racine police aren't either.
No student is suspected of placing the gun at the school, and Kupper said someone may have dropped the gun there the previous night after being scared by a police car driving by.
Kupper said police know the gun was reported stolen from Milwaukee, so, while it is currently in the Racine Police Department's possession, the gun will likely be returned to Milwaukee and its owner.
Christine Won contributed to this report.
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Tuesday, October 13, 2009 5:20 pm | Tags:
Starbuck Middle School,
Sandra Brand
