A 10-year-old fourth-grader brought a loaded handgun to Glassell Park Elementary School in Los Angeles on Tuesday. In a message to the school community, Principal Claudia Pelayo reported that “a handgun was found on campus.” No one was injured in the incident, the Los Angeles Times reports. “We took immediate action, including securing the weapon and notifying the Los Angeles School Police Department and Region West Operations for further investigation,” she said. “The parents of the ... student have been notified.” Sources said a boy brought a loaded .40-caliber Glock 22 to campus and that the gun had been reported stolen. A student who saw the boy show off the gun reported it to an adult. The gun recovery reflects an alarming increase of “weapons incidents” and fights at Los Angeles Unified schools amid demands from many parents for more police and security after the school board slashed the police budget four years ago.
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The manufacturer describes the seized Glock as “by far the most popular police service pistol in the United States,” adding that that gun “fires the potent 40 S&W cartridge and holds more rounds for its size and weight than most other full-sized handgun in its class.” Incidents involving weapons at L.A. schools have increased sharply since students returned to in-person learning after pandemic-related campus closures that lasted more than a year, starting in March 2020. In the 2018-19 school year — before the pandemic — there were 669 weapon “incidents,” a drop from the 705 of the previous year. In 2021-22 these incidents rose to 994 and rose again to 1,197 the following year, a nearly 80% increase compared to pre-pandemic levels in a school system with declining enrollment. This year, through April 15, there were 903 weapons incidents. Since then, incidents have included the May 3 arrests of two students carrying loaded semiautomatic handguns around Northridge Middle School. A Washington Preparatory High School student carrying a weapon shot and killed a student just off campus on April 15.