EDMONDS — Hours before an Edmonds-Woodway High School student was arrested late last month for investigation of having a gun on campus, school staff searched his backpack, according to new charges filed in Snohomish County Superior Court.
But they found nothing.
After he went back to class, the loaded Glock was recovered from his shorts, the charges say. In a statement, Edmonds School District spokesperson Harmony Weinberg said staff had been told the weapon was in the student’s backpack, so that’s what was searched.
“The district trains our school administrators on how to deal with reports of a weapon on our campus,” the statement reads. “Once an administrator is notified of a report of a weapon on campus, they quickly investigate the situation. If information is given that a student has a weapon in their backpack, an administrator will have that student come to their office and will search the student’s backpack. Staff are not trained to do a patdown of a student to search the student’s body for a weapon.”
On the morning of Sept. 29, two Edmonds-Woodway students told staff they were worried one of their classmates had a gun. The students showed messages asking one of them to hold the 15-year-old’s gun. He was reportedly concerned about being searched.
School staff called the student accused of having the weapon into the vice principal’s office. They told him about the report. The staff searched his backpack, but did not find the weapon. So he went back to class, according to court papers.
One of those two students who originally reported the gun then told staff of fears of retaliation. Staffers reportedly assured this student that the suspect had been searched.
The student then told employees the classmate had been seen with a gun at school the previous day, according to court documents.
A third student approached school staff about the student suspected of having a gun. That student reported talking to the suspect, who had said his backpack had been searched but staff didn’t find “it” because it was near his waist. The reporting student believed “it” referred to a gun, according to the charges. The student made an excuse to leave class and tell staff about the conversation.
At that point, staff called 911. Edmonds police came to the school, where teachers were directed to keep students in their classrooms, court papers say.
Police searched the suspect. They found a loaded Glock 27 pistol in the pocket of shorts he was wearing under his pants, prosecutors alleged.
As police arrested the 15-year-old student, he reportedly told them, “I just have a gun for self-protection.” The Glock’s serial number had been scratched off, making it illegible.
The student, of Lynnwood, was on electronic home monitoring, after having been charged with two counts of first-degree robbery, prosecutors wrote in charges for being a juvenile in possession of a firearm, a felony. Both cases allegedly involved handguns. The student’s parents told investigators their son was a gang member and had recently tried to leave the gang.
Last week, prosecutors formally charged the suspect. Generally, The Daily Herald does not name respondents in criminal cases involving juveniles.
Superior Court Judge Paul Thompson ordered the suspect held on $80,000 cash bail or $800,000 bond.
In the statement, Weinberg noted state law says a student who brings a weapon to campus will be expelled from school for at least one year.
This article has been updated to include a statement that the Edmonds School District sent around 2 p.m. Tuesday.
Jake Goldstein-Street: 425-339-3439; jake.goldstein-street@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @GoldsteinStreet.
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