15-year-old student facing charges after alleged weapon incident at Magruder HS, police say

Well, we continue to follow that developing story out of Montgomery County, where two students were taken into custody earlier at Magruder High School. That school was briefly locked down during the second week of the school year. Joining us now with the latest is Bob Varner. Bob, what can you tell us? Yeah, guy been arrested. 15 year old boy who had a BB gun at school this morning and was arrested by Montgomery County police and charged with a number of crimes. I want to show you V o what it looked like here at the school this morning. This happened around 99 30 this morning, and what we're told is that the police got a report and school staff got a report of a student with a gun and that while a school security officer and staff member confronted this 15 year old, he apparently assaulted them and was then found to have a BB gun. Um, and he, according to Montgomery County police, will be charged with first degree assault, possession of a dangerous weapon on school property and disrupting a school day. Yes, the school was placed on lockdown for a bit. Things have resumed to normal right now. But while the authorities were here looking for that gun, they confronted a student who apparently had a knife, and he was apparently very cooperative, handed over the knife. We're not sure why that student had a knife on school, but we're told he will be handled administratively. Only the 15 year old who allegedly had the BB gun will face, you know, the criminal justice system at this point. Um, after the lockdown, some parents came here to Magruder, which is in Rockville, Maryland, and picked up their kids. And we had a chance to speak to some of them at that time. I just came to pick my son up. He's in a program for kids with anxiety and had a panic attack. So I just came to pick him up to take him home. So some kid came in and decided to bring a BB gun into school, and then another kid thought it would be cool to bring a knife into school. And I decided to leave school because I don't feel safe. It's very dangerous. I do feel like it's dangerous. I don't feel like it's safe for kids to come to school and have to deal with that because kids do come to school to get an education. And I think we need to be on the house. How alert more fun security with kids entering the school year. I don't know if they have these cameras in there, or maybe they could get, like, kind of protection. But it's not wanting kids checking kids before they enter play. They did last year is a pilot program, but they don't any longer. Well, I think they should reconsider making that a mandatory thing just for our kids safety. And so what we were talking about there, if you recall last year at Bethesda Chevy Chase High School, Seneca Valley High School and here at Magruder High School, M.C.P.S. installed kind of a pilot program, not metal detectors like you'll see in some schools, but technology, basically a I technology guy that could pick up the presence of a weapon. I'm told if it was kind of out and seen, not necessarily if it was buried in a backpack. But that program was a pilot program last year. This school, none of the Montgomery County public high schools or middle schools have any kind of weapons detection systems in place right now. And if the name of Bruder High School sounds familiar, a lot of great things, obviously. But back in 2022, January of 2022, there was a shooting here on campus. Two boys fighting in one of the school bathrooms. Nobody was killed, but that one student who was shot was seriously wounded and the other face some serious consequences. So, uh, that might be why Magruder was one of the test schools for this system last year. But again, none of the high schools here in Montgomery County, two dozen or so have anything like a weapons detection system in place today. Sure. Yet again, tense moments for both parents and students at Magruder High School earlier. It's good to know, Bob, that the all clear now given Bob Barnard outside of Bruder High School in Rockville. We truly appreciate you, Bob.