Search for gun at Collingdale school comes up short

COLLINGDALE >> Police Friday searched a section of Harris School for a missing gun - believed to have been taken from his home by a seventh-grade student and given to one of his classmates - but came up empty.

Furthermore, Police Chief Robert Adams said Friday that the parents of the student suspected of receiving the firearm are refusing to cooperate with the investigation.

“We have no idea where it is,” Adams said of the firearm, a loaded 9 mm reported stolen Thursday night.

According to Adams, police were dispatched shortly after 10 p.m. Thursday to a residence on Roberta Avenue, where the legal owner of the gun said she believed her 13-year-old stepson had taken the weapon. Police also spoke to the teen about the missing firearm.

The boy’s stepmother told police she placed her firearm in the top drawer of her dresser about 8 a.m. Thursday, just prior to driving children to school. She was already in the car when she asked her stepson to bring another set of car keys back into the house, and leave them on the couch.

“She stated that he was inside for longer than expected but she did not think anything of it,” Adams stated in a prepared release issued Friday.

According to the release, the woman’s daughter told her Thursday night that she was in school when a boy approached her at the end of the school day and told her that her brother gave a firearm to another student. The mother and daughter were not at home during this conversation and when they arrived home, the woman said she immediately checked the dresser for the gun and discovered it was gone. She then contacted police.

Police notified school authorities and according to Adams, a decision was made to search the school with a K-9 team Friday morning. Parents and faculty were notified by globalconnect message.

The search Friday was confined to the seventh- and eighth-grade wing, library, art room and bathroom. Harris School is located in the 500 block of Sharon Avenue.

“We only searched areas where these students have access,” Adams said.

Authorities also searched seventh- and eighth- grade students’ book bags as they arrived to school Friday morning.

The two students involved have been removed from school, Adams said, noting that reviews are continuing by school district authorities and police.

“We will be reviewing the case with juvenile authorities for possible criminal charges,” Adams said.

Regarding the uncooperative parents, Adams said, “It’s very disheartening.”