A loaded handgun brought to campus by a student at Mae Eanes Middle School last Friday marked the third time in four weeks that a firearm has been discovered on a Mobile County Public Schools campus, renewing concern among parents and administrators about weapons finding their way into local classrooms.
School officials say the string of incidents began several weeks earlier when a loaded handgun was found on the campus of B.C. Rain High School. The school’s principal alerted parents to that discovery. About a week later, an unloaded handgun turned up at Mary G. Montgomery High School, and that school’s principal likewise notified families. The most recent incident, at Mae Eanes Middle School, involved a loaded weapon that a student is accused of bringing onto campus.
Mae Eanes Middle School principal Merrier Jackson credited the swift response of the school’s resource officer and the Mobile Police Department with helping the situation resolve without anyone being hurt. “These are judgments, and he’s really trying to do the best job you can in making those judgments,” Jackson said of the school resource officer’s handling of the incident.
Jackson said the school leaned on its automated notification system to get word out to families quickly once the situation was under control. “We have a voice messenger system that’s phenomenal, because once I make that one message it goes out as many times as I would like it to go out, and it goes out to everyone who has a current number on file. And so we did that,” she said.
Under Mobile County Public Schools practice, the decision on whether and how to alert parents to an on-campus safety incident is left to the discretion of each school’s principal, since administrators are considered best positioned to judge how their own school community will respond. “It’s been a very positive response from the entire incident. I’m glad that they leave that to the discretion of the principals, because you kind of know your audience and you know your community,” Jackson said. “There have been times for me in this particular case, I thought that this really warranted the community hearing from me, to make sure that they felt safe and felt that I know that I was on top of it. And so I went with that call.”
Jackson said the professionalism and speed of the police response were critical to keeping the campus calm while the investigation played out. “Police officers were phenomenal, because we were here from about 8:30 until possibly 11:30, really just following every lead, every possible lead there was,” she said. “It’s so frightening and terrifying, and to have people who come with that type of expertise there — it’s a support, it’s phenomenal.”
The student accused of bringing the gun to Mae Eanes Middle School was arrested and taken to the Strickland Youth Center, Mobile County’s juvenile detention facility, and charged with possessing a pistol without a permit.
The back-to-back incidents at three different Mobile County campuses — spanning a middle school and two high schools — have put a spotlight on how the district handles weapons discoveries and parent notification. School resource officers, who are sworn law enforcement personnel assigned to campuses in partnership with local police departments, are typically the first line of response when a weapon is reported, working alongside administrators to secure the school, identify the student involved and coordinate with outside law enforcement. Mobile County Public Schools, like most Alabama districts, maintains a zero-tolerance policy toward firearms on campus, with violations typically resulting in both criminal charges and school disciplinary action, including possible expulsion.
For families across the district, the cluster of incidents underscores the value of prompt communication from school leadership, something Jackson said she has heard repeatedly from parents in the aftermath of the Mae Eanes incident.