Couple at Beaufort-area high school found with gun & pistol magazine, police say
A female student at Whale Branch Early College High School faces two felony charges after administrators found a loaded gun in her backpack in the final weeks of the academic year, according to police. Her boyfriend was found with an empty pistol magazine but was not criminally charged.
The May 16 incident continues a steady pattern of students being found with firearms or weapons in Beaufort County public schools. Officials across South Carolina last fall reported a spike in threats of violence made to schools, the vast majority of which turned out to be unsubstantiated. Over 20 students statewide were charged in connection with those threats.
Just 11 days after the arrest at Whale Branch High School, officials at Lady’s Island Middle School reported finding 15 pieces of handgun ammunition in a student’s backpack after the student was caught with a vaping device and searched for other items. The juvenile was not criminally charged through the family court system but was “disciplined in accordance with district policy,” according to Lt. Lori Evans, a spokesperson for the Beaufort Police Department.
Because they are minors, none of the students were publicly identified by police.
How the students got caught
WBHS officials called deputies to campus around 10 a.m. on May 16 after administrators searched the male student and found the empty magazine. The student was on probation for a previous incident and wore an ankle monitor, according to an incident report from the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office.
But by the time police arrived, the student had slipped away from WBHS administrators, prompting the school to enter a “hold” — a precursor to a full lockdown — as authorities searched for the suspect.
Administrators found the runaway student near the school’s front office shortly after, according to the police report. He was detained and handcuffed.
Almost simultaneously, Principal Dr. Leach searched the student’s girlfriend in another part of the building and found a pistol in her backpack, the report says. Police then secured the gun and magazine before handcuffing the female student as well. Both students reportedly refused to speak with deputies.
The male student was later released into the custody of his mother, according to the police report, while his girlfriend was placed in a police car and driven to the Department of Juvenile Justice in Columbia.
Deputies later learned the gun they seized from the female student had been reported stolen out of Port Royal. She was petitioned to family court on the charges of possessing a weapon on school property and possessing a stolen gun, both of which are felonies.
WBHS is a Title I school with about 450 enrolled students. It’s located off U.S. 21 (Trask Parkway) in the Seabrook area, serving high schoolers in the northernmost reaches of Beaufort County.
School safety in the Beaufort area
Lt. Daniel Allen of the BCSO said law enforcement is “always being as vigilant as possible” to spot potential safety threats in county schools, adding that many of these cases hinge on whether police receive tips from the public.
Anyone with information regarding a potential threat to school safety can report it anonymously via the P3 Tips smartphone app or through the Crime Stoppers of Beaufort County program, Allen said.
