Overview
- School staff, acting on a tip about a social‑media post, searched a student’s backpack and seized an unloaded handgun and ammunition before calling Suffolk County police and the on‑campus school resource officer, the district said.
- The student was arrested and is facing juvenile weapons charges as the school district opened an internal investigation and said the student will face additional discipline under its Code of Conduct.
- Local reporting added that officers recovered a knife and identified the arrested student as 16 at arraignment where prosecutors said the firearm and magazine were on campus, though the district initially did not release age or gender.
- Parents and students at a packed school board meeting questioned why administrators did not order a lockdown or send immediate, detailed alerts to families and said the superintendent’s letter left out some specifics.
- The incident raised broader community alarm because the campus serves more than 2,000 students of different ages and prompted renewed attention to how minors obtain firearms and to campus security measures.