Same deal, different location:
BB gun prompts Code Red alert
Boy, 9, seen with pellet gun near Fox Chapel Elementary School
by Meghan Tierney | Staff Writer
www.gazette.net/stories/101007/poolnew34557_32361.shtmlFox Chapel Elementary School in Germantown went into a Code Red alert Thursday afternoon after a student with a BB gun was seen near the school.
Police found a 9-year-old boy, a student at the school, with a soft-air pellet gun, said Capt. Thomas Didone, commander of the Montgomery County Police 5th District station. The student had left school and retrieved the pellet gun to play with his friends, Didone said Tuesday.
Police received a call at 3:29 p.m. from Fox Chapel Principal Diana Zabetakis, who said that a parent had seen someone with a gun, police spokeswoman Officer Melanie Hadley said Monday.
Officers in bulletproof vests and rifles were looking for the individual on foot, said Fox Chapel parent Mary Gray, who lives near the school.
Hadley described the individual as ‘‘a kid with a BB gun” who was found ‘‘in the woods” and was ‘‘cooperative” with police. Zabetakis said the individual was not on school property.
A Code Red — the highest emergency-alert level in the school system — was called because someone saw ‘‘an adult male toward the rear of the building and thought he might have a weapon,” said Kate Harrison, a spokeswoman for Montgomery County Public Schools.
She did not know his age, but said, ‘‘It could’ve been a tall youngster.”
Staff and three students who were with their parents were present during the Code Red, Zabetakis said Monday. The alert went into effect immediately and was lifted after police said it was safe, she said.
According to Harrison, police finished their sweep of the area around 4 p.m. Students are dismissed at 3:05 p.m., according to the school’s Web site.
During the Code Red, everybody in the school secured themselves in the nearest room until the threat was gone, Zabetakis said.
‘‘It was a pretty low-key kind of thing,” she said, adding that she was pleased with staff response.
The school followed proper protocol, said Lt. Porsha Jones, director of media relations for police.
Jones would not provide information about the incident because no charges were filed, she said.
‘‘It was not a crime. It was not investigated as a crime,” she said Monday. ‘‘It was a child in possession of a toy. It causes a furor because they look very real these days.”
Zabetakis said she told the president of the school’s PTA about the incident but had not sent out a general letter to parents.