Guess the State: Kindergarten student brings gun to school, injures 3 classmates

[-Jrabbit]

"Chief Mock"

[Docfeelgood]

HOUSTON -- Signs of hard times are hard to miss in the Northeast Houston neighborhood where a 6-year-old boy brought a gun to school on Tuesday.

"We don't rear children the way like those of us are in their senior years were reared," said Willie Taylor, a long-time resident who lives near Betsy Ross Elementary School.

News of three students being grazed by a bullet in the school cafeteria traveled fast through the neighborhood and cemented opinions here.

"Children are the only adults in a lot of the homes," he said. "We have babies raising babies."

It's a symptom, he said, of a greater ill.

From 2000 to 2010, 162 guns were found on 45 Houston ISD campuses, according to a tally of incidents reported in the district's student disciplinary action summaries.

The most in a single school year? Thirty-four in the 2004-2005 school year.

The fewest? One in the 2009-2010 school year.

"Every employee of the district is going to have to be security conscious," said Jimmy Dotson, chief of the Houston ISD Police Department. "From administrators, to maintenance people, everyone will have to be very proactive when it comes to security."

Cornelia Rose, who lives near the elementary school. said many students were being raised by their grandparents because their parents were in jail or ill.

"I just can't imagine a 6-year-old with a gun," she told KHOU 11 News. "I think more things are happening now than ever before."

On Tuesday afternoon, the Houston Police Department released the following statement after it said it had not determined where the student obtained the gun, who owned it or whether charges would be filed:

"We are actively investigating any and all aspects of this incident and have groups of investigators attempting to make contact with numerous witnesses and their parents and/or guardians. We are working collectively with Harris County Children’s Protective Services and HISD to get answers to many of the same questions you and the public have regarding this incident."

Texas Child Protective Services said it had not taken the boy into custody.

He and a young girl remained at Texas Children's Hospital on Wednesday

wow, thats a lot of guns