EAST LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) – Parents are saying enough is enough, after another school lockdown in East Lansing.
Several parents stood outside of East Lansing High School Tuesday morning waiting for answers after reports that someone may have brought a gun to school.
The students had to shelter in place for almost two hours.
Parents were frantic because this lockdown was just one day after a school board meeting, where faculty and students spoke out about how fearful they are after a series of violent incidents.
“As of right now I just want my kid out of the building,” said Lori Vanderbush.
Vanderbush is a parent of a junior at East Lansing high.
She says she got a text from her son about the lockdown.
“My husband and I raced up here and saw no police outside the building at all,” she said.
Several parents called East Lansing police once they learned that the school was searching for a reported weapon.
On Monday, there was a heated school board meeting.
Students, faculty and board members talked about an outbreak of violence, including an incident that took place last Thursday where teachers tried breaking up a huge brawl.
They say a gun fell out of a student’s backpack.
Parents say things are out of control.
“There are fights every day, and I’m not talking about just hair pulling, it’s brutal. My daughter came home covered in other people’s blood last year,” said Vanderbush. “And it’s not just here in this building, it’s in the middle school and the middle school is 10 times worse most of the time.”
“The last few months it’s just been a little bit of chaos,” said Martin Edsall-Parr, who’s in the 11th grade at East Lansing High.
He says as long as he’s been here, instances like this were unheard of.
“It’s a good school, it really is. But I feel like we’ve gotta work towards a change,” said Edsall-Parr.
Superintendent Dori Leyko confirmed that reports of the weapon came from three students who saw a screenshot in a group chat.
No weapon was found.
School board president Kath Edsall says everything was done right today.
“Hopefully that’s what people want, is that we aren’t blowing off students’ concerns that they thought there was a gun in the building,” said Edsall.
But Vanderbush says the board needs to do more.
“And it’s their policies that have put these kids in harm’s way day after day. They need to go, Kath Edsall needs to resign,” she said.
The district says in regard to the fight last week when a weapon fell out of a backpack,
the person who had the weapon is not enrolled at East Lansing High. Police are still investigating that case.
