Grand Rapids Public Schools banned backpacks on Wednesday after a loaded gun was found inside a student’s backpack for the fourth time, according to a press release.
The gun was confiscated from a third-grade student’s backpack, and district leaders took the decision afterward.
The latest confiscations involved elementary school students and in three of the four instances, the gun was located in a backpack.
“This is not a decision we’ve taken lightly and we know this poses a significant inconvenience for our families. I am more than frustrated that a decision like this is necessary, but we must put safety first and that’s what this decision is about,” Grand Rapids Public Schools Superintendent Leadriane Roby said. “This is just one step in an ongoing conversation about how we can best protect our children in our rapidly-changing world.”
The incident took place at Stocking Elementary School.
“We have averted at least two tragedies in the last two weeks. We don’t want to stand before you again,” said Larry Johnson, executive director of public safety and school security.
Flint Community Schools banned backpacks beginning May 1, citing a nationwide “increase in threatening behavior and contraband, including weapons, being brought into schools at all levels.”
Flint students are allowed to carry belongings in small purses or clear plastic bags that are subject to being searched. Grand Rapids has not yet announced how its students will carry their books and belongings.
There’s an increased concern over guns in schools in Michigan following a mass shooting by a 15-year-old student at Oxford High School in 2021 that left four students dead and seven others injured.
Ethan Crumbley pleaded guilty to the shootings. He has said he used a gun that had been purchased for him by his father that had not been secured at home. Investigators believe the gun was stashed in his backpack on the day of the shooting.
A 6-year-old student shot his teacher in Virginia this year using his mother’s 9mm handgun.
Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed safe storage legislation last month that will require gun owners to keep unloaded firearms in a locked storage box or container when it is “reasonably known that a minor is or is likely to be present on the premises.” The law goes into effect next year.
She has also touted her “Operation Safe Neighborhoods,” which she said has taken “hundreds of illegal firearms off the street before they could be used in the commission of a crime.”
“But we must do more so the world that our kids inherit is not more violent than the one we inhabit now,” she said.
Democrats have control of both Michigan’s House and Senate but enjoy only a very slim margin of two seats in both legislative bodies. Whitmer said that she hopes to “work across the aisle” to build bipartisan support.
“This year, let’s work together to stop the violence and save lives,” she urged lawmakers in her fifth State of the State address in January.
Giffords Law Center, a gun reform advocacy organization led by former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, recently gave Michigan a C+ “scorecard grade” for its current gun reform efforts, saying that the state has made moderate strides in recent years to improve gun safety, but it can do “much more” to save lives and prevent shootings.
In 2020, Giffords found Michigan ranked 24th in the highest-gun death rate in the United States.
