ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – It’s a scary email for any parent to find in their inbox. But it’s one Tres Volcanoes Community Collaborative School parents received after school on Monday, telling them a student brought a gun to campus that morning.
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The email said school staff learned of the situation, immediately notified Albuquerque Public Schools police, and confiscated the gun.
But one parent told KRQE News 13 she was upset to learn about the incident after the school day. “I was very upset about it. I’m not too thrilled about it,” said Andrea Martinez, the parent of a first grader at the school.
She feels more should’ve been done when the staff learned of the gun. “Whether they felt like they had that situation under control or not, a lockdown should’ve been put in place,” she said.
But the school’s actions were within the district’s ALICE protocol. “Every incident at a school is different, and our principals have to decide how best to handle a situation based on the information they have at the time. In this case, the principal immediately pulled the student aside, found the gun, and called authorities. The situation was handled quickly and effectively without the need for a shelter-in-place,” said Martin Salazar, APS Communications Director, to KRQE News 13 in an emailed statement.
Martinez said her daughter is still shaken up from the incident. “They say, ‘Oh, they were there in minutes,’ but ok, anything can happen in seconds,” she said. “She’s panicking now. She don’t want to go to school. She hasn’t gone to school since Monday.”
Martinez said she is trying to contact the school about safety protocols. Meanwhile, the 12-year-old who brought the gun to school is facing charges. Police said he stole the gun from his mother’s boyfriend. The state filed to keep him in custody until trial, but he was released from juvenile detention and will be monitored at home.
On Thursday, there were also at least five schools were put on lockdown due to phoned-in threats. But Albuquerque Public Schools police determined they were not credible and lifted the shelter-in-place. Salazar said APS police is continuing to investigate the incidents alongside the Albuquerque Police Department and the FBI.
