Discovery of gun leads to soft lockdown

MEMPHIS — A soft lockdown went in place at White Station High School while officials inspected after a gun was found on campus Thursday.

Memphis-Shelby County Schools has since reported the student brought the gun to campus for protection going to and from school. The update illustrates the complicated ways community gun violence intersects with young people in Memphis and tangles with gun violence at America’s schools, a topic at the forefront of the nation after 19 students and two teachers were shot and killed in a Texas elementary school earlier this week.

It was lunchtime for freshman Michael Arnold, and he’d gone to his favorite teacher’s classroom with friends on the second-to-last day of the school year.

“My teacher watched over us,” Michael said. “She barricaded the door and we were all in the corner safe.”

At the teacher’s suggestion, he responded to a text message from his parents, to let them know where he was and what was happening.

Students began leaving the school at 1 p.m., but for the couple hours they were locked down inside, concern swirled on social media and a swell of parents grew outside the school, anxious to see their kids.

It was challenging to wait outside, “especially with the atmosphere in our country right now — with the violence and mass shootings,” Michael’s dad, Mike Arnold, told The Commercial Appeal from outside the school.

At White Station High School in East Memphis, the school district said there was never an active threat to students or staff.

Police have said the gun belonged to a student, but the student was not holding the gun when it was located. The Memphis Police Department went to the school after receiving a call that a student was armed.

According to the school system, students tipped administrators about the gun, which the district said reflects “a culture of trust.”

No shots were fired and no one was injured, the police department said around noon.

In the corner of his teacher’s classroom, Michael was concerned. He and his friends were afraid about what was happening once they found out a gun was involved.

“But my teacher assured us that everything would be OK,” Michael said later.

He and his classmates felt more assured once they learned the student had been detained.

“At no time has there been any threat against students or staff,” Jerica Phillips, spokesperson for Memphis-Shelby County Schools, said in a statement to The Commercial Appeal.

Phillips said mid-day that parents were being notified about the lockdown, describing standard practice for “soft” lockdowns like this one as notifying families at the end of the day. When the school identifies an immediate threat, she said, parents and families are immediately notified.

Lockdowns are generally ordered for possible community or campus threats. White Station has two school resource officers and random walkthroughs with a wand metal detector occur each day, the system said.

The district did not respond to a Commercial Appeal request seeking information about the frequency of lockdowns or how often weapons have been found on campuses this year, instead pointing the newspaper to an open records request.

One student survived being shot by a classmate in a system K-8 school last fall. The shooting prompted an immediate school safety review by former Memphis Police Department Director Toney Armstrong, but the district has not released any findings.

Shortly after 1 p.m., parents began showing their IDs and signing their students out of school.

When Arnold reunited with his son, he felt “relief, relief, relief.”

“He’s my namesake,” Arnold said, thanking God no one was hurt.