Posted on 09/13/2017 12:51:39 PM PDT by RightFighter
A San Bernardino school counselor was arrested Monday morning after she brought a weapon onto the campus of Paakuma’ K-8 School, according to police and school district officials.
“It was locked in the employee’s personal vehicle, which was in the parking lot, which is school property,” said Linda Bardere, spokeswoman for the San Bernardino City Unified School District. “At no time was the weapon brought out or shown.”
At a community meeting Tuesday evening, the school’s principal and the school district’s police chief said no direct threat was made to a student or staff member. “We don’t believe that person is a threat to the campus,” Chief Joe Paulino said.
Pakuuma' parent: "Was there a direct threat made to a student or staff member?" Morales: "No."
Anita Rene Scott, 55, was arrested on suspicion of bringing a firearm to school, according to San Bernardino County sheriff’s booking records. She posted $25,000 bail early Tuesday and was released from the West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga. The district placed her on administrative leave, Bardere said. Scott has worked for the district since 2001.
Bardere said another employee came forward and “shared a conversation from the past week about weapons.” The employee said Scott admitted to having a weapon in her vehicle.
Paulino: The person who reported Scott's gun directed police to exactly where it could be found.
Paulino said that as soon as that anonymous report was made, an officer was dispatched to the school. He and Paakuma’ Principal Victoria Morales took questions Tuesday night at a community meeting in the school’s gym. About 75 concerned parents and students attended.
The gun in Scott’s vehicle was registered to her, Paulino told the crowd, but she did not have a permit to carry it on her person. He said he didn’t know whether she knew that she was breaking the law by having it on school property.
“We believe this person committed a crime,” Paulino said, “but ultimately, the court will determine if they’re guilty.” Morales noted at the beginning of the meeting that because the investigation is ongoing, there are some things officials couldn’t share publicly.
Later, Paulino told parents that he didn’t know how long it would be before full answers would be available: “We’re at the mercy of the court system.”
Morales said Pakuuma’ holds regular drills to prepare for an armed intruder. She also noted that the school has some new security procedures. She did not mention why, but the district has reviewed its procedures in the wake of last year’s shooting at North Park Elementary. A man came to that school where his estranged wife taught, shot and killed her and one student, wounded another student and then killed himself.
Officials did not tell Pakuuma’ students about Monday’s incident, but officials did send a letter home with them that day to notify parents. “I want to assure you that all safety precautions have been followed,” says the letter signed by Morales. “The weapon was never exposed to students or other employees.”
A school psychologist and counselor were on campus Tuesday, but few Pakuuma’ students brought it up. Morales said the day “was business as usual.”
Scott had previously spoken out against violence in 2013 when several people, including students she had interacted with, protested in San Bernardino against injustice and police brutality following the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the high-profile killing of unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin in Florida.
In an interview with this newspaper, Scott was quoted as saying, “Those are my kids, and what’s on my heart right now is what I’m going to say to them,” she said. “We need to teach them that you have a right to assemble — you have a right to march, a right to protest, a right to rally. What you do not have the right to is to destroy private or public property.”
626.9.
(a) This section shall be known, and may be cited, as the Gun-Free School Zone Act of 1995.
(b) Any person who possesses a firearm in a place that the person knows, or reasonably should know, is a school zone, as defined in paragraph (1) of subdivision (e), unless it is with the written permission of the school district superintendent, his or her designee, or equivalent school authority, shall be punished as specified in subdivision (f).
(c) Subdivision (b) does not apply to the possession of a firearm under any of the following circumstances:
(1) Within a place of residence or place of business or on private property, if the place of residence, place of business, or private property is not part of the school grounds and the possession of the firearm is otherwise lawful.
(2) When the firearm is an unloaded pistol, revolver, or other firearm capable of being concealed on the person and is in a locked container or within the locked trunk of a motor vehicle.
This section does not prohibit or limit the otherwise lawful transportation of any other firearm, other than a pistol, revolver, or other firearm capable of being concealed on the person, in accordance with state law.
No crime here, at least not in free states.
Police carry guns into schools all the time so obviously, the gun isn’t the problem.
Flat violation of “shall not be infringed”.
The police even said maybe no laws were broken. So why do they do the bidding of the hoplophobic school administration? Because the police are too weak to tell the left-wing parents and the gun-grabbing city government to settle down and learn about the law.
That’ll certainly stop the next person who wants to bring a firearm on campus to do harm. If not, we need more anti-gun laws. /sarc
Loose lips sink ships.
my thoughts exactly. also thinking that she shouldn’t have told anyone about it in the first place. People you think you can trust will frequently stab you in the back like that. She learned that lesson the hard way.
It’s California- The Infringement State.
Could it be that the school is trying to stir up parents against the counselor, or at least make a mountain out of a mole hill? I wonder how someone knew she had a weapon? I would feel very uneasy carrying a weapon in CA due to this craziness.
When the school says she "made no direct threat" it leads one to believe she made an indirect threat. If she made no threat, they should have said she made no threat.
Of course they didn’t ID the rat that snitched on her.
This school district has its own police force, and that police force has an anonymous tips program for rewards.
WE TIP
If you have any information regarding the person(s) involved in a crime against your school, you are encouraged to call WeTip immediately at either of the numbers listed below. You may be eligible for a reward if your information leads to an arrest and conviction. No one will know who made the call!
Witness Anonymous Toll free nationwide 24 hours
(800) 732-7463 or (800) 78-CRIME
They also have this:
SAW Hotline
Students Against Weapons Hotline
388-6043
Witnesses will stay anonymous.
Never trust a liberal. Ever! Tell them nothing of importance and very little of anything else.
There are two reasons that I don’t trust people:
1.) I don’t know them.
2.) I know them.
Lots of fine people in California. I have a brother there and my best friend from boyhood.
That being said, I have been there more often since I retired and both my wife and I feel like we are leaving the United States when we go there.
Such should seriously be a prime pro-RKBA case. I’m amazed such incidents keep happening, with absolutely no leveraging from our side. So much talk about restoring rights, so much request for legal-fees money, so little progress over decades. Stuff like this should be a slam-dunk.
A particular peeve of mine.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.