GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Grand Rapids community leaders are urging parents to do more in preventing their children from bringing guns to school.
The call for action comes after a Stocking Elementary student brought a loaded gun to school on Wednesday.
The Grand Rapids Public Schools student was found to have a loaded gun in their backpack after another student alerted an adult to the situation.
Grand Rapids Police responded to the school and took possession of the weapon.
School officials, the Grand Rapids Police Chief and Mayor Rosalynn Bliss spoke to the community shortly after the gun was found.
GRPS Chief of Staff and Director of Public Safety, Larry Johnson urged parents to "step up" and help make Grand Rapids schools and communities safer.
"Our schools are a microcosm of this community. And if we want to have safe communities and safe schools, then we must actively work together to make that happen. So our plan I call this to our parents, it's to our clergy, it's to all of our leaders that play an important role in the life of kids, that now is the time to step up," Johnson said.
"We also challenge our parents to make sure that they're doing more before that child leaves the home daily," Johnson added.
Grand Rapids Police Chief Eric Winstrom also focused on parents taking a bigger role in the community's safety when it comes to guns in the home.
"Let me tell you how we avoided that tragedy, it's children. And I'm talking seven-year-olds, and eight-year-olds did the right thing, and informed adults that they trusted about this dangerous circumstance," Winstrom noted.
Winstrom, who seemed visibly upset with the situation, said that it was on the parents to ensure their child and other children's safety when it comes to guns in schools.
"What we need in the City of Grand Rapids is decisions by adults in this city, to be just as good as the seven- and eight-year-olds to make these decisions to do the right thing. Here are children, seven- and eight-year-olds taking an interest when they see there is something dangerous in this backpack that could kill people in this room," Winstrom said.
Winstrom echoed Johnson's sentiment that parents need to be checking their children's backpacks and other belongings before they go to school.
"I think it's important that the parents, that the mothers and fathers, and mother figures and father figures in this town take just as great of an interest, a much greater interest, in looking at that backpack before it leaves the house... Whether your child is eight, whether your child is 18, take an interest in making sure that you take these guns out of your children's hands," Winstrom concluded.
This is the fourth time a student brought a gun to a GRPS school this school year.
The school district has responded with a backpack ban through the remainder of the school year.
You can watch the entire press conference from this afternoon here:
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