Updated 4:15 pm: A 15-year-old Leon High School student has been arrested for carrying an unloaded gun to school. The student is facing felony charges and law enforcement officials say they believe he intended to sell the gun after school.
Ninth-grader Raekwon Taylor was taken to the Leon County Juvenile Assessment Center. He’s charged with two felonies for carrying a .25 caliber semi-automatic handgun to school. Leon County Sheriff spokesman Lieutenant James McQuaig says a fellow student noticed Taylor with the gun and reported it to school officials and the school resource officer:
“The isolated the student, they got him out of class, he was actually in class, removed him from the class, and were able to confirm that he was in possession of a handgun. He actually had it on his body.”
In an unrelated incident, this past Friday an 11th-grader at Florida A&M University’s Developmental Research School was taken into custody after he threatened suicide and showed a teacher a loaded gun in his bookbag.
Now Leon County Sheriff Larry Campbell and School Superintendent Jackie Pons are asking Gov. Rick Scott to help fund additional school resource officers. Pons says resource officers should be in all of the state’s public schools.
“In Leon County we already have our high schools and middle schools covered. And I’d like to see the program in our elementary schools also," he said.
Both the arrests and the funding request come in the wake of last Thursday’s Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Connecticut. School officials across the state are reviewing their safety procedures.
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A 15-year-old Leon High School student has been arrested for carrying an unloaded gun to school. Officials say ninth-grader Raekwon Taylor found a .25 caliber semi-automatic handgun and intended to sell it. He’s been arrested and taken to the Juvenile Assessment Center.
The arrest comes as Leon County Sheriff Larry Campbell and School Superintendent Jackie Pons are asking Gov. Rick Scott to help fund additional school resource officers in the wake of last Thursday’s Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Connecticut. Twenty children and seven adults, including the principal, were killed.
This past Friday, a day after the Sandy Hook shooting, an 11th-grader at Florida A&M University’s Developmental Research School was taken into custody after he threatened suicide and showed a teacher a loaded gun in his bookbag.
Check back later on for more updates to this story.
