Students bring guns into two Benton Harbor schools
Posted: Dec 8, 2011 11:07 PM EDT | Updated: Nov 6, 2014 2:45 PM EDT
BENTON HARBOR, Mich. – Police have arrested two students with guns inside two different Benton Harbor schools in the past couple of weeks. This has parents and students asking how the guns could make it past school security.
Police first arrested 18 year-old Elijah Beauford at Benton Harbor High School on November 18th. They later discovered he had a loaded gun on him inside the classroom.
Police said they had a valid warrant for Beauford’s arrest and they knew he was at school on November 18th.
Police said they checked in with school security and went up to the classroom he was in. Beauford was escorted out and of the room, handcuffed, and taken to the detective bureau where he was searched.
During the search, police discovered he had a handgun that was loaded on his body. Police found the gun inside the front area of his pants.
This left students and parents stunned that Beauford got the gun past the metal detectors and inside of the high school.
Jesse Brown’s son will be starting high school next year and he said this is just too dangerous to be happening in the classroom.
“I believe a little bit more can be done to improve the school system. It’s like the metal detectors they have and stuff they don’t really work I really don’t know what to say, it’s just dangerous for the kids, said Brown.
Students said a lot of kids were talking about the arrest on Thursday and they were surprised to hear Beauford had gotten a gun past security.
“It’s surprising, but people bring a lot of stuff in school,” said senior Seth Meeks.
The students still do think the school has a tough security system.
“Trust and believe the high school’s got good security, a very good security system,” said senior Roland Wren.
For parents, they said the security can always be tougher.
“Maybe they should have more security on the outside and maybe security on the buses,” said Brown.
ABC 57 made calls to the high school and was referred to the superintendent’s office about the incident. The superintendent’s office never returned our calls for comment.
This is the second gun that has been brought into a Benton Harbor school recently.
On Monday, December 5, police arrested 20 year-old Dwayne Lewis at Dream Academy who had a gun in his coat pocket.
Police said they had an anonymous tip that Lewis had a gun at school. They took Lewis outside of the school and found the gun in the pocket.
Lewis told police he found the gun while walking to the bus stop, and was planning on selling it.