Student found with ‘inoperable gun parts’ at Beaufort-area high school, police say
After a 17-year-old student at Battery Creek High School was found with “inoperable” firearm parts on campus Tuesday morning, officials said the discovery was a success of the school district’s newly installed weapons detection systems.
The detection device alerted staff as the male student entered the Beaufort-area high school at the beginning of school Tuesday. Officials searched the student and found the gun parts, including “an upper receiver to a rifle,” according to the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office.
A school resource officer took possession of the parts, which were examined and found to be inoperable, police said. As a precaution, the high school of about 800 students was briefly placed on a lockdown “hold” around 8:45 a.m., meaning teachers cleared the hallways, locked their doors and taught as usual until an “all clear” was announced around 11 a.m., according to district spokesperson Candace Bruder.
Deputies elected not to charge the student with possession of a firearm on school property, the sheriff’s office said. The gun parts were placed into police evidence.
In an email sent to parents on Tuesday, Battery Creek administrators wrote that no direct threat was made to students or staff but as a precaution, there would be an “extra law enforcement presence” at the school for the remainder of the week, Bruder told the Island Packet in a text message.
Beaufort Co. schools’ new weapons detection system
Bruder said this was the first “significant item” caught by the district’s new CEIA OPENGATE weapons detection systems since their installation in all Beaufort County public high schools in early December. Other items like vapes had been found by the devices, she said.
Students bringing weapons or firearms to local schools is not an uncommon event. Last year, at least three Battery Creek students were charged with bringing loaded guns on campus. Two of those high schoolers were “best friends” who brought the firearms on the same day, according to previous reporting.
The Beaufort County School District’s handbook says students who bring a firearm or “destructive device” on school property must, by law and with “limited exceptions,” receive a yearlong suspension.
Weapons are prohibited on public school campuses
In its Tuesday afternoon alert, the sheriff’s office issued a reminder about weapons being prohibited on public school campuses.
“We urge parents, guardians, and caregivers to have conversations with their children about the seriousness of incidents like this and the importance of immediately reporting any knowledge of weapons on school grounds to school staff,” the alert read.
Bruder would not confirm if the 17-year-old student had been suspended but said the district “will follow our disciplinary policies to the fullest degree.”
