New info on Beaufort High student with gun in backpack; parents raise safety concerns

Administrators at Beaufort High School tipped off police about the 16-year-old student carrying a backpack with a gun on campus Wednesday morning. The early alert allowed for a swift police response with no injuries to students or staff — but the incident has reignited debate about school safety in Beaufort County’s public schools.

It is yet to be known if the gun was loaded.

Working off information from a source, school staff alerted the on-duty school resource officer, Michael Chutjian, around 9:34 a.m. Wednesday. Once informed, he called for backup from city police and Beaufort County deputies before pursuing the suspect.

Agency spokesperson Master Sgt. Lori Reeves said the student ran from the school resource officer before being detained in the main parking lot, where a handgun was found in the teen’s bag.

The school’s approximately two-hour lockdown lasted until at 11:38 a.m. as law enforcement responded and remained in large numbers.

The student, who has not been publicly named due to being a minor, was transported to the Department of Juvenile Justice for a detention hearing. Reeves did not know the specific charges brought against the 16-year-old, although a report from the Beaufort Police Department says the student was taken into custody for “multiple weapon law violations.”

Investigators would not comment on whether the handgun was loaded or if the student intended to use the weapon on school grounds.

Anyone with information about the incident is encouraged to call Investigator Setian at 843-322-7928 or Beaufort police’s anonymous tip line at 843-322-7938.

School safety in Beaufort County

Like all schools in the district, none of the entrances at Beaufort High School are equipped with metal detectors, Reeves said. The incident evoked a number of online criticisms about a lack of safety protocols in place at the 1,200-student school.

“How do you spend millions (of) dollars in art centers and not have metal detectors in these schools?” wrote Valeria Richardson, an organizer of the Beaufort County Awareness Group that works to prevent gun violence in local youths.

County school board members considered installing metal detectors in schools following a similar scare in 2014, when a student at Bluffton High School brought a loaded gun and several knives to school. Dozens of Lowcountry students organized a walkout in 2018 after the Parkland High School shooting, advocating in part for enhanced safety measures across the district.

Approved in a landslide vote in November, the county’s $439 million bond referendum project includes $22.4 million for security improvements, such as expanded surveillance camera coverage and “enhanced door security” at all schools and district offices. School district spokesperson Candace Bruder told The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette on Thursday that none of those referendum funds would go toward metal detectors.

Metal detector wands have been used since at least 2019 for students at Right Choices, the district’s alternative school, according to a program handbook. Each public school in the county conducts three active shooter drills every school year.

Wednesday morning’s incident marks at least the sixth time a student has been found with a firearm on Beaufort County school grounds in the last five years. Threats of gun violence are much more common, but most are revealed to be unsubstantiated.

In late February, a district safety officer found two handguns inside an assistant principal’s car parked at the Hilton Head Island School for the Creative Arts. His employment with the school ended shortly after, although no criminal charges have been filed.