A gun belonging to an Oxford High School student was found in the bed of the student’s truck, parked in the North lot at the high school, Nov. 10.
According to reports, Oakland County Sheriff’s Deputy James Willyard responded to a suspicious circumstance call to the school. When he arrived, he found the bed of the truck open and a long gun case beside the tailgate in the bed.
‘We secured the area so that nobody was in any danger at anytime,? said Oxford High School Principal Michael Schweig.
When the officer opened the gun case, he found a Remington .22 scoped rife inside. He also found a .20 gauge slug. However, there were no .22 rounds or other ammunition in the truck. According to Schweig, police confiscated the weapon and determined that it was inoperable.
Once the police identified the registered truck owner, they immediately interviewed two students, who had the same last name as the truck owner, on why the gun was in the back of the truck.
‘Police met with the boys, met with the parents and talked with them and got it resolved. Nobody was in any danger; nobody was threatened and the gun was inoperative,? said Schweig.
According to police reports, both boys were hunting the previous day with their father and friend. One brother, claiming that it was his gun after his mother bought it for him, put the gun in the back of the truck and forgot about it. The other brother stated it was an accident; he didn’t know that the gun was back there, and if he did, they never would have brought the gun to school.
The parents later retrieved the gun from the station.
‘Anytime that happens, we start from the premise that it is a potentially serious situation and want to secure (the school) and make sure that no one is in any danger or harm’s way. And nobody ever was,? said Schweig. ‘Every time we looked to make sure that it was okay, it turned out that, yes, it was. There was no threat or any danger to anyone. We’re glad to find that out.?
Even though the two students had no intention of harming anyone, there was still the issue of the gun being on school grounds.
Oakland County Sheriff’s Sgt. Randy Praski stated that it was accidental, and it was going to be up to the school district to figure out if there was going to be any disciplinary action.
Usually, the school has a zero tolerance policy when finding a weapon on school grounds.
According to Schweig, he didn’t consider the rifle as a weapon because there were pieces missing from it. ‘Other than it being the wood part of the gun and the barrel, there was nothing else in it that would fire’this would almost be a situation like where our flag twirlers have their wooden guns.?
He stated that the firing pin was not with the rifle.
‘Based on the fact that it was a metal tube where nothing could fire through it, doesn’t make it a gun,? Schweig said when explaining his rationale. ‘We used the term gun because it was a piece of a gun. According to the legal definition, it doesn’t have all the parts to be a gun; it was a piece of it. To my understanding , it has to be able to produce a charge or explosion.?
According to Praski, for a handgun or rifle, anything over a .177 caliber is considered a firearm.
‘At this time, we have no evidence that puts this in a category of a weapon on school grounds in terms of what the legal definition is,? Schweig said.
‘In analyzing it with the police and administration, we determined that we didn’t have enough to go forward with any further consequences,? Schweig said.