A 10-year-old Eliot Elementary School student was arrested on
suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon after he shot a toy
pellet gun at his teacher, police said.
A 10-year-old Eliot Elementary School student was arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon after he shot a toy pellet gun at his teacher, police said.
On Monday, a student – who may have been the same student who fired the gun – searched through Principal James Dent’s cabinets and drawers and found the pellet gun, which had been confiscated at an earlier date, Sgt. John Sheedy said. The arrested student took the pellet gun to class Wednesday morning and shot it, Sheedy said. One of the pellets grazed the teacher’s hair, but neither she nor anybody else in class was injured, he said.
“We’re not sure what the student was doing – whether he intended to shoot at the teacher or whether he was fooling around as he claims,” said Gilroy Unified School District Superintendent Deborah Flores.
The weapon was a plastic toy gun that shot off plastic projectiles, Flores said.
“It’s hard to imagine that it could hurt anyone,” she said.
The school is still investigating the incident and hasn’t determined the connection between the student from whom the toy was confiscated, the student who went into Dent’s office to take the toy and the student who shot off the toy gun.
“We’re not done with the investigation,” Flores said. “We’re taking this very seriously. Under the education code and the penal code, this is a very serious incident. We’re taking every disciplinary action necessary.”
Flores would not say if the child would be returning to school.
In her experience, she could not remember a time when a student had gone through a principal’s belongings and said that it’s common practice in the district for principals to have an open-door policy.
“There’s no reason that a student should go into the principal’s office and take something from the desk,” she said. “It’s very unusual.”
Eliot school parents were notified of the incident via a letter and an automatic phone call, Flores said.
“As a parent, I would be very worried if I heard there was a gun on my child’s campus,” she said. “But it was not a real gun. It was a toy gun. That does not excuse the behavior, but I don’t want people worried about their children’s safety.”
The boy was booked at the Gilroy Police Department on charges of assault with a deadly weapon and bringing a weapon on school grounds, Sheedy said. He was released to his mother and will be assessed by the juvenile probation department.
