A Valley mother and father want answers after a student brings a loaded gun to their son’s college class. They say the incident happened at Chandler-Gilbert Community College last week and that school officials did very little about it.
“Make sure that this gun is not coming back to school,” demanded Barbara Vale, a concerned mother whose son is in the same class as the student who brought the gun.
School officials confirmed the incident happened, but they’re not saying much about it. Barbara said the student who brought the gun was suspended for a couple of days and is now back in class.
“So, I don’t want to sit here and know that I have to worry about my son going to school. I shouldn’t have to,” she said.
Barbara’s husband, Joe Greenwell, said he spoke to school officials about it, and he’s upset the school didn’t do more.
“If you’re not going to do any other security measures and the person gets two or three days suspended—which to me seems like a slap on the wrist for something like this—I think it sends the wrong message to anybody, particularly the person who brought the gun, that, ‘Oh well it’s not that big of a deal, I had a couple days off,’” said Greenwell.
School officials tell him safety on campus is a priority, but Joe wants to see more security measures.
“In light of what’s happened in Dayton and El Paso. This seems like a huge red flag to me,” said Greenwell. “I’m not anti-gun, but there’s certain places it doesn’t make sense to bring a gun, to bring a loaded pistol and a school campus is one of them."
“It was reported to the right people. The teachers did their job. The school is not doing their job. They decided to let someone back. Great, you want to do that, you make sure that that person doesn’t bring another loaded pistol again,” said Barbara.
Matt Hasson, the communication director, for Maricopa Community Colleges said they have a policy in place banning students, employees and visitors from carrying concealed weapons, including guns, and that the student didn’t have a policy exemption, so they should not have had the gun on campus.
Hasson provided the following statement:
"The safety of our students and staff is our paramount concern. The college addressed this situation by conducting an investigation into the report. Public Safety was notified and conducted its own investigation and made the determination not to arrest the student. The college followed its policies and procedures in investigating this matter.
MCCCD policy 4.6 prohibits students, employees, and visitors from carrying concealed weapons on their person. A gun does qualify as a weapon. The student involved did not qualify under one of the prohibition exemptions. All students are afforded due process and the particulars of conduct investigations and determinations are protected under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)."
12 News plans to follow-up with more questions.