Community meeting held right after critical gun scare at Eugenia B. Thomas K-8 Middle

Community meeting held right after critical gun scare at Eugenia B. Thomas K-8 Middle


MIAMI – The Miami-Dade College District held a public meeting with moms and dads about the severe scare that transpired earlier in the week.

On Monday, a college student at Eugenia B. Thomas K-8 Centre brought a loaded gun to campus.  

We acquired on Friday, college students alerted a instructor about the loaded gun. The college then instantly went into a Code Yellow.  

Officers informed CBS4 that the university resource officer retrieved it. 

The boy who brought it in is no longer a student at the university, and it has however to be established if he will be expelled from the district. His dad faces rates for the incident.

Dad and mom shared stress Friday that university directors did not manage the circumstance correctly. School leaders stopped learners from contacting or texting moms and dads about what took place although waiting around hours till facts mom and dad of what took place.

“My kid arrived [home] that working day [and said] mother, ‘I believed I was heading to die,'” explained Laura, a mum or dad of a next-grade student at Eugenia B. Thomas. “I mentioned goodbye to my good friends. I was crying.”

She claims she discovered out Monday evening that her son considered there was an active shooter.  

“As a guardian, realizing what he went via, I would have picked him up [before school let out],” stated Laura.

Like most parents we spoke with and heard from, she uncovered following the school day that a weapon was discovered on campus, and the university student responsible was eradicated. That is various hrs soon after the incident.

During Friday’s meeting, college board member Christi Fraga called for enhancement in sharing critical data with dad and mom.

“They felt the information and facts was withheld from them in a way that built them anxious,” explained Fraga. “We glimpse at how we can develop coverage or increase our plan to make absolutely sure conversation is swift and correct.”

Even though Fraga and district leaders fielded questions from mom and dad, school leadership noticed from the aspect.

The college on Monday did not go into a entire lockdown, with lessons however in session throughout the problem. One particular guardian questioned why not a code crimson and a comprehensive lockdown once the loaded gun was identified.  

“Each individual scene is different,” reported Miami-Dade Educational institutions Main of Law enforcement Edwin Lopez. “It is pretty fluid. It really is centered on the judgment of individuals individuals at the university at the time.”

Lopez states the college useful resource officers and personnel did an exceptional position containing the scene.

Fraga needs to see enhancements to ways soon after its contained, which include permitting college students time to cope, primarily people in the course where the gun was found or many others traumatized by currently being in a lockdown circumstance.

“Should have had a tiny additional focus in advance of resuming a ordinary faculty day,” additional Fraga. “These who required it. I am of the perception mom and dad should be concerned in that system. Mother and father must be immediately termed, notified, and then the process ought to begin.”

Fraga states counselors went into every course on Tuesday to focus on what happened.

Main Lopez certain apprehensive moms and dads his group remains ready to respond to shield students’ lives in scenario of an active danger.

“What happened in Uvalde will not come about right here,” Lopez claimed to the parents.  

“We’re not waiting around an hour to go in and deal with an active shooter and take him out. Not going to happen in Miami-Dade County.”

Lopez claims his officers are qualified to neutralize a risk promptly, and you will find an officer at each college within just the district.

Fraga emphasized that the incident remains under investigation, including interaction with learners and mothers and fathers.



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