15-year-old student arrested with loaded gun at Columbia high school

A 15-year-old Columbia high school student was arrested Friday after bringing a loaded gun to school, according to the Richland County Sheriff’s Department.

The Spring Valley High School student, whose name is being withheld due to his age, was charged with unlawful carry, possession of a firearm on school grounds and possession of a pistol under 18, the sheriff’s department said in a statement.

He’s been booked into the juvenile wing of Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center.

A school resource officer at the Richland 2 high school discovered the gun Friday afternoon in a book bag the student was carrying, the sheriff’s department said. There’s no evidence the student threatened any students or staff with the firearm.

Spring Valley principal Jeff Temoney wrote in a letter to parents that administrators asked the officer to search the student’s belongings after being tipped off that he’d talked about having a gun at school.

In his letter, Temoney wrote the incident had been handled swiftly and that all students and employees were safe.

“I assure you that school and district leaders understand how concerning it is for parents and students to learn about a weapon on campus,” he wrote. “We all share the alarm and concern at this growing problem, and we must all work together to prevent our children from getting access to weapons.”

Temoney said school administrators and school resource officers would follow district procedures and board policy in administering disciplinary consequences for the student.

A student who brings a weapon to school faces expulsion of no less than one year, according to Richland 2 board policy.

Starting soon, the district’s Office of Emergency and Security Services will begin conducting random metal detector screenings at its high schools, Temoney told parents.

Friday’s incident at Spring Valley marks the second time this week a Columbia high school student was arrested for allegedly bringing a loaded gun to school.

On Tuesday, a 17-year-old student at C.A. Johnson High School on Barhamville Road was arrested on multiple weapons charges after a school resource officer found a loaded gun inside his book bag, according to Columbia police.

There have been seven gun-related incidents at South Carolina schools in just the past two weeks, including three in the Rock Hill School District, according to news reports.

South Carolina recorded a 47-year-high in school shootings last year, according to a report published by the Charleston Post and Courier, and the number of weapons confiscated in schools more than doubled between 2018 and 2021 in districts the paper analyzed.

In response to the uptick in school violence, a coalition of South Carolina education and mental health advocacy organizations has released a school safety agenda it hopes local, state and federal elected officials will consider adopting.

The group’s 10-point plan, which is intended to provide common sense policy solutions that are “practical, possible and hold great promise to keep children safe,” includes recommendations like enhancing school mental health services, hiring more school resources officers and passing child access prevention laws that impose legal responsibility for adults who provide minors access to firearms.