MIDDLETOWN, Pa. (WHTM) -
Homecoming weekend wasn't the same for the Middletown School District. The dance was postponed and football game had extra security. This comes after a student brought a loaded gun to school Friday.
Police said they're not sure why a student brought a loaded gun to school. Just in case that student planned anything for one of the many homecoming festivities, the district took action.
There was more police presence at the football game.
"It's a no-brainer to have the extra security here," said Bob Stone, a father of two high school students.
The high school stood empty Friday night because there was no homecoming dance.
"The kids were upset because they canceled both the dances last night," said Cathy Vasquez, a mother of a middle school student.
It's all because police say on Friday, a high school student told school officials he saw a classmate pick up a gun in the boys' bathroom, then put it in his backpack. School officials took action immediately and confiscated the loaded gun.
Both the student who reportedly planted the gun and the student who picked it up were taken into custody.
"I think that they handled it very appropriately," said Vasquez. "They were on top of the situation. Thank goodness nobody was hurt," she said.
But that doesn't ease parents' fears.
"The thing that scares me the most is a copy cat," said Stone. "People that want to go out and do the same thing. It's always scary when something like that's happened and I think the school district acted in the right way."
"To have that happen so close to home, it's scary because you never know," said Vasquez. "Even at the football game, everybody now is kind of like, you have to watch your back and make sure of your surroundings."
It's something Vasquez, a Middletown native, said she didn't have worry about in the past.
"This town was everybody knew everybody and everybody kind of looked out for everybody. There's a lot of people moving in and it's scary," she said.
The Middletown school district has rescheduled the homecoming dance for this coming Friday, October 19th.
