GALVESTON, Texas – The lockdown at Ball High School in Galveston was lifted Tuesday morning after a student was found with an unloaded gun on campus, Galveston Independent School District said.
The school was on lockdown for precautionary measures from around 9:15 a.m. until around 10 a.m., after a concerned student reported a gun was on campus, officials said.
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A .25-caliber handgun without ammunition was found and the student who had it was taken into custody, the district said.
"I was, like, really scared. I didn’t know what to expect, if anyone was going to come through the door. I was just so scared and nervous," said 11th-grader Ariana Smith.
Sky 2 video showed a long line of parents outside the school around 11 a.m., waiting to pick up their children.
"I got a text from my child and she was frightened (so) I came down here and it's been chaotic," Bill Barton said.
Parents were worried that their children may have been in a dangerous situation.
"Fear, panic. I was angry. I was upset. I was just trying to get here to check on my child," Reva Branch said.
Galveston ISD said:
"We encourage parents to allow their student to remain on campus as to not interrupt the educational process; however, if you choose to pick up your student you have the option to do so.
"An investigation is underway and we will continue to send out timely updates as they become available."
A scary morning for students at Ball High School in Galveston. Parents are here picking up their children after a brief lockdown. District officials say that a student is in custody after bringing an unloaded handgun to school. @KPRC2 at 12 pic.twitter.com/qfnsmxh9wK
— Brittany Jeffers (@KPRC2BrittanyJ) September 18, 2018
Here are the incidents at Ball High School reported to the Texas Education Agency during the 2016-17 school year, which is the most recent reported data:
Aggravated Assault – District Employee: 0
Aggravated Assault – Non-District Employee: 0
Assault – District Employee: 1-4
Assault – Non-District Employee: 1-4
Firearm: 0
Gun, Knife & Prohibited Weapons: 1-4
Knife: 0
Offense Relating to Prohibited Weapon: 1-4
Terroristic Threats: 0
To check your child's school, click on our interactive map and database below:
**A note about our searchable database. All the information comes from the Texas Education Agency. In numerous areas you will notice '1 to 4' listed under the incidents and students columns. Federal law prevents the TEA from providing a specific number when fewer than five instances of a particular incident occurs on a campus. Therefore, the TEA provides a code that indicates at least one or as many as four instances of a particular incident occurred on a campus. The TEA's database lists this code as -999. When KPRC took the state's information and created a searchable database we replaced -999 with '1 to 4'.
