ENCORE: What Really Happened on Urbandale's Jensen Playground?

Last week, Jensen Elementary School officials sent this email to parents after an 8-year-old student brought a pellet gun to school: 

Dear Jensen Parents, 

Today at school a very important lesson about "telling an adult whenever you feel unsafe" helped us ensure the safety of all students and staff. 

A student reported to a playground supervisor that they thought they saw a gun at morning recess. 

Immediately the student was confronted and turned over an unloaded pellet gun. At NO time were any students in danger. 

The Urbandale Community School District will not permit or tolerate the possession, display, or use of weapons and/or dangerous objects by any person on school premises or vehicles, while the person is participating in or attending District events and activities.

Police were called to assist in the investigation ensuring the safety of all students and staff. 

This afternoon the school staff talked to all students and emphasized the importance of always telling an adult or seeking adult assistance when they feel unsafe. 

As a parent you may want to discuss this important lesson with your child and discuss which adult they would seek out.

Parents of two children who saw an 8-year-old boy with a pellet gun last week during recess at Jensen Elementary School, recounted what their children told them. One of them asked not to be identified. Both parents say in another Patch article today that they are upset with school officials' response.

The 8-year-old boy apparently had hidden the pellet gun in his pants when he came to school, said the parents. One parent said his son told him he saw the boy take the gun out of his pants. He was waving it around and pointing it at some girls.

He said his son and another boy asked the 8-year-old if the gun was real. 

The boy told them: "Yeah, it's real and if you tell on me, I'll shoot you."

Neither parent said their child reported to them that the boy pointed the gun at them or directed it at them in a threatening manner when he said this.

Both parents said their children told playground supervisors. The boy told his father that he reported the threat.

Parent Kim Yoblonski said her daughter tried to tell a supervisor what she saw, but is not sure the staff member heard her over the other children.

The girl said the 8-year-old boy threatened her and the two boys because they saw him with the gun and were near to him on the playground. Her mother said the three children aren't close friends nor did they have any particular relationship -- good or bad -- with the 8-year-old.

After they reported the gun to playground supervisors, both of the boys were asked by the principal, in front of the 8-year-old, what they saw.

Principal Julia Taylor and her staff praised the children for reporting what they saw and they reinforced that smart behavior with the rest of the school's students later that day.

Superintendent Doug Stilwell said Taylor had to coax the 8-year-old to give her the pellet gun.

Still a mystery is how the principal managed to coax the gun from the boy but did not have the gun when police arrived at the school. 

Police Chief Ross McCarty said he couldn't comment on how the boy's mother may have come to have the pellet gun. Police have charged her with interfering with their investigation by trying to conceal the pellet gun from them.

He did say that the gun was not at the school when police officers arrived and that they went looking for it.