Teacher’s aide, 24, indicted for having gun in classroom
A Rockland County grand jury has indicted a former Rockland County BOCES teacher’s aide on a felony charge of criminal possession of a weapon on school grounds and three counts of endangering the welfare of a child, all misdemeanors.
The charges stem from Gillian Jeffords, 24, of Warwick, bringing a loaded 9mm pistol to class along with four magazines containing 28 rounds of ammunition, 14 of which were hollow-point rounds, according to authorities.
If convicted, she faces up to four years in state prison.
Jeffords worked at the Jesse J. Kaplan School in West Nyack.
Officials have reported that, on March 29, 2018, Jeffords reported to work and placed her pocketbook on a bin in a classroom closet. Not long after, according to the charges, a fellow employee accidentally knocked over the pocketbook and spotted the pistol.
Administrators at Rockland BOCES placed the campus into lockdown, with the Clarkstown Police school resource officer responding to the scene.
The closet in which Jeffords allegedly left the pistol was accessed by the students regularly. The bin in which she placed her purse was used to store student bathing suits.
Three students were in the classroom at the time Jeffords put the purse in the closet.
She was later fired from BOCES.
At the time the incident, Clarkstown Police Officer Peter Walker said Jeffords had a full-carry permit issued in Orange County, as well as one issued in Pennsylvania.
Clarkstown Detective Lt. Glenn Dietrich said, “As a gun owner with a permit, you should know what you can and cannot do, that it is against the law to carry a firearm on school grounds, regardless of whether you have a license.”