BERKELEY COUNTY, S.C. (WCSC) – Several members of the community are feeling uneasy after two weapons were found at Berkeley County Middle School this week.
Berkeley County Middle School parent Renee Valencia got a phone call on Monday saying a loaded gun was found at school, leaving tensions high for the rest of the week.
“The first call, I started crying because it’s scary. You know, you don’t want anything to happen to your kids, and with all that’s going on this week, these past months, it’s just been scary,” Valencia said.
She, along with others, said they believe several factors could point to this week’s incidents, including parent and guardian involvement as well as mental health.
“The school will always be the school. We offer so many wrap-around services for our students, social, emotional, the health, the well-being, the nutritional aspect, the extracurricular aspect of a child,” Berkeley County School District Chief Operations Officer Tim McDowell said. “But again, the parents need to know what’s on that child’s phone. They need to know what’s in a backpack in their bedrooms, what friends they’re keeping, and who they’re communicating with.”
Former Berkeley County teacher Ashley Figueiredo said she’s seen firsthand how parent and guardian involvement directly impacts children’s mental health.
“I think that when you have involved parents and when you have parents invested in their child’s education and in their child’s well-being, if there is a mental health concern, it’s being addressed. So often when there’s a disconnect at home and there’s a mental health concern, sometimes those mental health challenges can get out of line or out of hand, and that’s when we see situations like this arise,” she said.
Figueiredo also said drills and training done at school kicked in when there was a threat made last year.
“I had children in my lap, I didn’t even know their names. Like, just holding them, telling them they were going to be okay, and that’s a scary situation. And it’s not a situation anyone should have to be in,” Figueiredo said.
Valencia says, unfortunately, with the society we live in, we must be proactive, and that starts in the home because she said it takes a village to protect each other, even if that means drawing boundaries with your kids.
“I think it’s all in being involved. My kid used to have a cell phone. He doesn’t have a cell phone anymore. We kind of cut the video games. You know, he was in his room a lot, I wanted to change that. I don’t want him in his room; he would isolate himself from the family. You know? It’s all more into incorporating everybody into the daily routine,” Valencia said.
McDowell agrees.
“It’s just being proactive versus reactive in our society, whether it be the school, the home, you know, wherever the child is,” he said.
As someone who was a single mother, Valencia said she knows it can be impossible to be in two places at once; that’s why it’s important to keep them active.
“I do sympathize with parents who aren’t able to be there all the time and be involved all the time, but it’s also a priority too. It’s putting them in sports, keeping them active, and making sure you know who your kids are hanging out with, who their friends are,” Valencia added.
The school district says these recent findings, though may be scary, show their safety systems are working.
“We use what’s proven. We do take a lot of information from our law enforcement leaders and implement those within our security plans,” McDowell said.
One of those security plans is their see something, say something system. The district, along with the Moncks Corner Police Department, praises the students who stepped up and notified the school when they did see something.
To help with the mental health crisis schools are seeing, the district says it utilizes other systems for that.
“We have, you know, tiered systems for teachers, nurses can identify a student who may be struggling in the classroom, and we do offer support, and through outside agencies we can offer support for that, and we’ve had that in place,” McDowell said.
Since the incidents, the student with the gun on Monday was charged and taken to Charleston County Juvenile Detention, while the student with the knife was charged and released to his sister. Both were charged with carrying a weapon on school grounds, and the disciplinary actions are per the school district’s code.
The Moncks Corner Police Department’s Chief Lee W. Mixon Jr. said in a statement:
“I think it’s important to highlight the courageous acts of the students who took a stance by not allowing another student to have a weapon on school campus. We encourage all students who see something, say something. This includes the students who reported a social media post to their parents about the possibility of a shooting at the Middle School today. The threat to the school was determined to be not credible since the original post could not be located or provided to us. Both the Moncks Corner Police Department and the Berkeley County School District remain committed to the safety and security of our students and school. There will be additional officers in and around our schools to ease the minds of parents, students, and school staff. Anyone caught bringing a weapon into our schools not covered by the law will be charged and arrested. Students face additional disciplinary action by the school.”