CHS POLICE PRESENCE UP IN WAKE OF WEAPONS ARREST

In the wake of Thursday's police alert and eventual apprehension of a student at Columbia High School for possession of an Airsoft gun and a knife, Maplewood Police increased their presence at the high school this morning.

Several police vehicles were in front of the Parker Avenue entrance, while parking was banned from the south side of the street.

Police have indicated that no other credible threats of weapons were found for CHS or Maplewood Middle School, where another student was arrested on Wednesday for taking a loaded handgun to that school.

In a related move, an online petition demanding a public forum for discussion of related issues has gained more than 500 signatures.

It states, in part:

We need a forum as soon as possible at which administrators and parents can talk about this episode and figure out CONCRETE steps to take to keep such a thing from happening again, and to address the overall environment at MMS and other district schools, which can be hostile and threatening. Among those concrete steps can be an assembly for gun safety education with information on how to prevent accidental shootings (one of the leading causes of childhood death).

See it HERE.