OAKLAND PARK, FLA. (WSVN) - Deputies have arrested a 16-year-old student after, school officials said, the teen brought a loaded gun to Northeast High School in Oakland Park, triggering a lockdown.
A concerned parent held back tears just before she went inside the school to make sure her children were OK, Friday afternoon.
“Nerve-racking, but I want to check on my children,” she said.
The school went into code red after, officials said, the firearm was found inside the student’s backpack.
“They were doing the protocol of staying in the closet and lights off,” said the mother who spoke with 7News.
Students said that’s how most of their day was spent.
“We were in code red for about two and a half hours, and then code yellow for another half an hour,” said a student.
“All doors have, like, this little window, so we covered the windows, we turned off the lights, we got in a little corner and tried to stay out of vision,” said another student.
School officials said two students were spotted hopping a fence. Both were apprehended, and the gun was located inside one of the students’ backpacks.
7News cameras captured a Broward Sheriff’s Office deputy carrying a large black backpack while the school was still locked down.
Several hours later, the lockdown was lifted, and the students were dismissed.
The arrest comes a week after a 14-year-old boy was arrested at Boyd Anderson High School in Lauderdale Lakes for bringing a gun to campus. Authorities said the teen was not a student at the school.
Back in October, students were arrested at Walker Elementary in Fort Lauderdale, Thomas Jefferson Middle in Northwest Miami-Dade and Lamar Louise Curry Middle in Southwest Miami-Dade for the same reason.
Prosecutors dropped the charges against the 10-year-old who was taken into custody at Walker Elementary.
Peter Cruz, another Northeast High parent, was barely fazed by the day’s events.
“You know, honestly, it doesn’t shock me anymore. These things, it’s sad to say, they happen so often, and you hear about this stuff all the time,” he said. “I guess it’s just the world we live in.”
The teen arrested on Friday faces multiple gun-related charges.
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