Lakewood Looks To Add Metal Detectors At Elementary Schools

LAKEWOOD, NJ — As authorities continue to investigate how a 9-year-old elementary school student got a handgun that he brought to school on Tuesday, Lakewood School District officials say they are looking to purchase metal detectors for the district's elementary schools.

In a roundtable that was livestreamed by The Lakewood Scoop, Board Attorney Michael Inzelbuch and Superintendent Laura Winters said the district already has metal detectors at Lakewood High School and Lakewood Middle School. The plan is to purchase them for the six elementary schools, she said. John Stillwell, the district's security director, said he already had received price quotes for detectors.

The two boys who were seen on security footage from the school bus handling the .22-caliber handgun have been charged with weapons possession. The boys may have had the weapon with them on other occasions, but Lakewood Detective Lt. Gregory Staffordsmith said a report by the Lakewood Scoop that quoted Winters as saying the boys had been carrying it daily has not been confirmed.

"Nothing in the investigation revealed that the boys possessed the gun daily," Staffordsmith said. "It is possible that they had it on Monday but we are still trying to substantiate that."

School security has been a front-burner topic for school districts across the country in the wake of the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, in February that killed 17 students and staff. Additional incidents, including the shooting at Sante Fe High School in Texas in May that killed 10 people, have only ramped up that concern.

Tuesday's incident prompted Winters and Inzelbuch to address the incident during the roundtable, saying the district takes every incident seriously and regularly conducts drills to be prepared. Coincidentally, a lockdown drill had taken place at Lakewood High School on Monday, they said. Students alwo are reminded frequently to speak up if they see something suspicious or something that is a possible threat, they said.

It was a student who saw the boys handling the handgun on the school bus and who then told an administrator that led to the boy being stopped from entering Oak Street Elementary School with it and the handgun being seized, Stillwell said. (RELATED:2 Boys Charged For Loaded Gun On Lakewood School Bus: Police)

Winters said parents were notified of the incident by robocall about 11:15 a.m., which was shortly after news media got wind of the situation and reported on it, a fact that angered some parents. Winters said that was an issue out of the district's hands, due to police scanners.

Winters and Lakewood police said because police and the district's security personnel responded so quickly, arresting the student and securing the gun, there was no need for a lockdown.

District officials and police were expecting to meet with officials from the bus company — the incident happened on a bus operated by a private company — to review the video of the incident and see what if any changes need to be made.

Patch has a copy of the video but is not publishing at this time to protect all of the children on the bus because they are juveniles.

A screengrab of the bus video shows students handling the handgun. Video provided to Patch, used with permission of the Lakewood Police Department