Crime & Safety
ENCORE: Jensen Officials Should Have Dialed 911 When Pellet Gun Brought to School Says Urbandale Police Chief
After an administrative review of the March 27 pellet gun incident at Jensen Elementary School, Urbandale school officials will call 911 when there is a weapon at a school.
Urbandale School administrators have reviewed how the Jensen Elementary School pellet gun incident was handled on March 27 and will call 911 any time a weapon is found at school.
That was the recommendation from the Urbandale Police Department, said School Superintendent Doug Stilwell.
However, Stilwell said administrators concluded the incident was otherwise handled appropriately.
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"I feel comfortable on many levels," Stilwell said Wednesday. "I'm comfortable in that nothing happened and no one was hurt. I'm comfortable that we implemented appropriate disciplinary action … and I'm comfortable that we communicated honestly with parents."
Some Jensen parents remain upset that the second-grade boy who brought the pellet gun to school did not receive a stronger punishment. The boy was suspended from school for four days, the parents said. School officials cannot comment on discipline of a specific student.
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Three parents also appeared at the school board meeting Monday night, and at least one complained that school officials had lied to parents when they sent an email telling parents that the gun was unloaded.
Police Chief Ross McCarty said Tuesday night that the police officer in charge of the investigation erroneously told school officials the gun was unloaded, when in fact it contained one pellet and a compressed air cartridge necessary to shoot the pellet.
"We shared everything we knew, so you can imagine my chagrin when we're accused of lying," said Stilwell. "We were not withholding information. That was the information we were given."
Chief McCarty said school officials initially called the police officer stationed at the high school, then called police dispatching and asked for a patrol officer.
In the meantime, the boy's mother removed the gun from the principal's office and left the school.
McCarty said the incident reinforced the need to summon police immediately in such cases and 911 is the quickest way to do that.
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