The day before Nikolas Cruz killed 17 high school students and adults in Parkland, Fla, the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office arrested a Ransom Middle School student for allegedly bringing a loaded Sterling 25 automatic pistol to school. Ashton B. Ferguson-Resmondo, age 13, faces charges of possession of a concealed weapon, brandishing a firearm on school grounds and possession of a controlled substance without a prescription, which are third degree felonies
Based on an anonymous tip, the school resource officer on Tuesday intercepted the student on the bus ramp as he was leaving on a bus. Ferguson-Resmondo was escorted off the bus. He had the pistol in the waistband of his pants. A search of his backpack found three prescription pills and a razor knife.
According to the arrest report, Ferguson-Resmondo on Monday had turned over two pocketknives and two 25 auto-rounds of ammunition to a teacher under the district’s Safe Harbor policy.
The Safe Harbor policy states in the Student Handbook: “If a student who is in possession of an item of contraband (such as a pocket knife, drugs, etc.) voluntarily surrenders the item as soon as he/she realizes that it is in his/her possession to a responsible staff member, then the student may be eligible for mitigation, in whole or part, of the penalty for possessing the item as appropriate under the circumstances. To qualify for this provision, such surrender must occur prior to the beginning of any investigation or search that might uncover the item.”
Student had his gun with him the entire school day, in glasses, lunch, gym, and nobody saw or did anything about it??? Are the teachers and other staff members blind. Maybe if the resource officer walk around the school building, instead of just setting in his office playing with his app, a student or he himself might of seen the gun??? Of course we shall not talk about limiting the sale of guns in the county, the gun nuts (NRA) would find a way to shoot us. Nothing is going to happen in the state or country until a new generation of voters who will not be bought and paid for by the NRA take over our government and change all those guns laws that allow anyone to buy guns of mass destruction. The sooner the old white Trump type supporters move on, nothing will change in this state or area.
The responsibility and consequences of this event should fall on the adult who owned, failed to secure the weapon and negatively influenced this student. Kids who, by no fault of their own, are influenced by irresponsible adults should not be the individuals to bear the burden and consequences of a crime. That should fall on the adult that led the child astray