ROCKLIN-
A day after a student brought a handgun to Rocklin High School, students returned to class feeling uneasy.
“My brother is a freshman here and my mom had picked him up. As soon as I got home she hugged me and she was crying,” Rocklin High School Senior, Carissa Lightfield, said. “I said ‘okay, I do not know what is going on’ and she said somebody brought a gun to school. The first thing I thought of is where is my little brother.”
“Very frightened and scared to realize that some of my fellow students could have been shot and killed or hurt,” Rocklin High School Sophomore, Delaney Walatka, said.
Rocklin Police say a 14-year-old student had the gun in his pants waist Wednesday. He showed it to another student 15 minutes after school was dismissed.
The student who saw the gun went home, then came back to campus to tell administrators what happened.
“I think any student would be nervous and be concerned, but he handled it really in a brave manner,” David Bills, Principal, Rocklin High School, told FOX40.
Rocklin Police were notified, as well as parents, who told FOX40 they got an automated message from the school informing them of the situation.
Police found the student who had the gun at his home, and arrested him.
“He indicated, along with his parents, that we could search his room and we found the handgun in the room,” Sgt. Trent Jewell with the Youth Service Unit at the Rocklin Police Department said. “The magazine was out of the handgun, but sitting next to the handgun.”
Officers are still investigating whether the gun was loaded while on campus.
Rocklin Police say the student who brought the gun to school got the gun from another student in the Rocklin Unified School District.
That student had reportedly stolen the gun from his parents.
Thursday, only the third day of the school year at Rocklin High, this incident brings back memories.
In May, just before the start of summer, two students were arrested for making gun related threats in separate incidents at Whitney and Rocklin high schools.
Police say Wednesday’s event was not related.
Police are now monitoring social media sites more closely to prevent future problems.
