School district says it has resources to help prevent events such as guns brought to campuses

Reporter: Taylor Smith Writer: Jack Lowenstein
Published: Updated:
A Collier County deputy is on campus at Osceola Elementary School after an 11-year-old student was brought into custody for bringing an unloaded gun to the school Tuesday, March 2, 2021. Credit: WINK News.

See something. Say something. You’ve heard it before, and that’s what led to an 11-year-old being taken into custody after being accused of bringing a gun to school.

Many people noticed extra security at Osceola Elementary School in North Naples Tuesday after a fourth grader’s arrest.

Collier County Public Schools has a link on its website to make it easier for kids and parents to report things like this. It’s called Keep Collier Safe. It lets you report an incident anonymously, and parents hope it can prevent another incident like this from happening again.

It’s not an alert, any parent wants to receive.

“To hear that in the schools, it’s shocking, and it actually kind of took my breath away a little bit,” Darleen Provo said.

A student is accused of bringing an unloaded gun to school.

“That would make me really sad to hear that things like that are brought to school at that young of age,” Provo said.

Provo has two kids in elementary school, so thinking about it what a young student is accused of made her emotional

A youth relations deputy at the elementary school stopped the fourth grader when he was getting off of the bus after hearing about a threat to shoot two classmates.

Rich Kolko, WINK News Safety & Security Specialist, says the see something, say something rule is crucial to preventing that.

“Typically, when they go back in time, there were a lot of things noticed by a lot of people, but they didn’t see something and say something at that time,” Kolko said. “And that is why it’s so critical that that message gets out.”

Parents hope their kids can be comfortable sharing information like this to adults.

“They need to know that, so that they can also tell their teacher or whoever something like that, so they stay safe,” Provo said.

The principal told parents the school is encouraging any students impacted by the day’s situation to take advantage of their mental counseling.

The fourth grader faces a felony charge and remains in custody.

MORE: Collier County Public Schools – Keep Collier Safe

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