Parents concerned about student safety after guns found on Wake County Public Schools campuses

By WTVD Staff

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    RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) — Earlier this month, a gun was found inside a student’s backpack at Enloe High School in Wake County. Now, we’re learning there have been four incidents of guns found on Wake County Public School System campuses so far this school year.

ABC11 spoke with parents very concerned for their children’s safety at Enloe High School. They didn’t want to go on camera for privacy reasons.

“With the amount of school shootings that have happened across the country, it’s always a very real and very inherent fear,” Ryne Doxsie, the Wake County Sheriff’s Office master deputy, said.

With nearly 18 years in law enforcement, and a dad himself, Doxsie knows as well as anyone the seriousness of bringing a firearm on a school campus.

“State law says that any student caught on campus with a gun – it’s a mandatory one-year expulsion,” he said. “They cannot come back to the school for 365 calendar school days, which is serious in itself.”

It’s also a crime to carry a gun on school property in North Carolina and could bring years of jail time. But even more serious, are the consequences if that gun goes off.

“Bullets are like words. You can’t call them back,” Doxsie said. “Once it’s out there, it’s out there. You cannot call that bullet back.”

And it costs lives, like 16-year-old Josselyn Escalante, who was shot and killed by another student in a school cafeteria in Nashville last week.

Preventing guns in schools The first thing Master Deputy Doxsie recommended to prevent guns in schools is teaching kids about guns at a young age. If you wait until they’re in high school, it’s almost too late.

“Help them understand the value of human life,” he said. “Help them understand that it’s not a toy – that it can easily take a human life. Even if it’s just bringing a gun to school just to show it off, to scare somebody, to look cool, whatever the motivation may be behind it, we have to impress upon them that it is that serious.”

Another thing to keep a close eye on is your friends and family.

If you think someone may potentially bring a weapon to school or maybe having mental health struggles, tell someone right away.

“Relay that to a guidance counselor, an adult, somebody they trust,” Master Deputy Doxsie said, “so that we can try to address it before it happens before it becomes a reality.”

If you are a gun owner, take safe gun storage seriously:

Don’t ever leave a firearm in a car even if it’s in a garage Keep guns locked away in a safe when they’re not in use if possible The Wake County Sheriff’s Office will even hand out gun locks for free if cost is a barrier.

“A gun lock may not necessarily keep it from being stolen, but it will keep it from being operable to a young kid who may not have the means to break that lock or cut it,” Doxsie said.

If you have questions, including on gun storage or a situation involving a firearm, he said the sheriff’s office is always there.

They would much rather prevent a tragedy than respond to one.

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