Police confirm BB gun and drugs at Trenton school
TRENTON » The Franklin Elementary police investigation that began Wednesday afternoon has exposed widespread troubles at the Trenton public school involving drugs and weapons.
A Franklin student brought a toy gun to the school on Monday, another student brought marijuana to school on Tuesday and another student brought a BB gun to the school on Wednesday, police said on Thursday.
City police did not begin investigating these three incidents until Wednesday afternoon not because they were slow to respond but because of a communications snafu within Trenton Public Schools. The principal of Franklin Elementary allegedly failed to report the drug incident to the superintendent, which needlessly delayed the process of police notification, sources said.
A Trenton Public Schools spokeswoman confirmed the district is “cooperating with law-enforcement authorities,” but added, “We are unable to comment on any student or any personnel issues whenever there is an active investigation happening.”
Under the New Jersey Administrative Code and the Trenton Board of Education’s district policy on substance abuse, Franklin Elementary Principal Nicole Bethea should have immediately reported the student’s alleged drug possession to Superintendent of Schools Dr. Fredrick H. McDowell Jr. to allow him to immediately notify police of the incident in accordance with district policy.
Schoolteachers on Tuesday allegedly found marijuana on a student and reported the matter to Bethea, who allegedly stashed the illegal substance in her office on Tuesday without informing the superintendent or contacting police, sources with intimate knowledge of the situation told The Trentonian.
The superintendent’s administration contacted police on Wednesday after The Trentonian began asking district officials and law-enforcement officials about the student who allegedly came to school with a small amount of pot. Police responded to the school Wednesday afternoon and then learned about the three separate incidents of concern.
On Monday around dismissal time, a Franklin Elementary student reported to a teacher that another student had a BB gun stashed in a backpack. The teacher approached that student and ended up recovering a plastic pistol with plastic BBs, said Trenton Police Lt. Stephen Varn, who referred to that item as “a toy gun.”
On Tuesday, a Franklin Elementary student was observed in possession of what was believed to be marijuana. School officials ended up recovering a sandwich bag containing a “small amount” of suspected marijuana, Varn said.
On Wednesday morning, a Franklin Elementary student was seen in the bathroom with what appeared to be a gun. A school security guard investigated the report and recovered a BB gun, Varn said.
“No charges have been filed as of this time,” Varn said on Thursday, adding that all three matters “are still under investigation.”
The Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office is aware of this week’s troubles at Franklin Elementary School, which is located at the corner of William and Liberty streets in Trenton’s Franklin Park neighborhood.
“We are not involved in the investigation,” Casey DeBlasio, a Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office spokeswoman, said Thursday in an email. “We have, however, been in touch with Trenton police regarding these cases and will provide legal guidance and investigative assistance as necessary.”