Kenosha schools gun scares; police, district address safety concerns
KENOSHA, Wis. - After the Kenosha Unified School District had two gun scares in the span of a month, FOX6 News went to Kenosha police and tried to interview district leaders to answer questions.
A police lieutenant spoke to FOX6 about what happened. The KUSD superintendent and communications director were both out of the office on Friday, but they did answer some questions via email.
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Police said someone notified a school resource officer on Monday morning about a social media post of a student with a gun. Officers searched and arrested the student at Indian Trail High School and Academy, but it wasn't until four-and-a-half hours later that police said they found the teen had a small, 5-inch gun hidden in his groin area.
"Where the weapon was concealed was in a sensitive area," Kenosha Police Lt. Joshua Hecker said. "During the initial search, after reviewing the video of it, it’s clear the 16-year-old kid was doing his best to hide and keep that firearm concealed. And at one point he was able to put his hand in his pocket.
"During the search, the officer said: ‘Oh, what is this?’ And it ended up being his hand. Well, at that moment in time, it’s my belief after watching the video, that the juvenile was covering the gun with his hand and the officer felt his hand during the search.
KUSD said the principal called families on Monday night, around 6 p.m., about the social media post and alerted the school board. Administrators did not mention a gun because they did not yet know about it. The school district's communications director told FOX6 they didn't find out about the gun until Tuesday. That is when they updated families.
The Kenosha Police Department is doing an internal investigation into what went wrong – and what comes next.
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"Is it a training issue? Is it a discipline issue? Is it both? That’s something that the investigation will reveal and that’s something that we’ll address," Hecker said. "Maybe there’s a need to have some remedial training in proper search techniques. If those are identified during the internal investigation, then we will set up a training program.
"Supplying our officers with metal detecting devices, such as metal-detecting wands, we have that option available. Is it something we’re going to look at? Possibly. Again, I think this goes back to a training issue, and are we doing the most thorough search that we can possibly do? That’s where we need to identify. If the answer to that is ‘no.’"
Indian Trail High School and Academy, Kenosha
Some families questioned why metal detectors aren't in schools. Police said that's a decision for the school district.
"That’s a very hefty lift. Metal detectors are going to pick up things such as the hinge pin on a laptop that most of our students carry," said Hecker. "Going through a metal detector and identifying whether it’s a weapon or not is going to significantly reduce the amount of people being able to come into the building at a time."
For now, the 16-year-old student is locked up and had a court hearing on Thursday.
Monday's incident at Indian Trail was the second safety scare for the school district in a matter of weeks. Prosecutors said a teen brought an airsoft gun – which looked like a real firearm – to a Kenosha elementary school in November.