‘Deeply troubling’: Teen found with 2 loaded guns at Blake High School in Tampa, police say

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — A 15-year-old was found with two loaded guns at Blake High School on Thursday, according to the Tampa Police Department.

“Schools are a place to learn, not to worry about a school getting shot up,” Tampa Police Deputy Chief Calvin Johnson said. “Our kids go there to learn, not to dodge bullets.”

This comes as parents have been seeing school threats running rampant on social media, something Johnson said TPD takes very seriously.

“It’s always a major issue when we get these threats that get called in because it’s time consuming,” he said. “We have detectives, officers going to the detectives to make sure the threats aren’t credible.”

“Our biggest fear is a school shooting,” he said. “Any threat that we get, regardless of if it’s a school, a high school, a college, we take it extremely seriously. We don’t want anything to happen on our watch.”

“Any threat we get, we follow through A-Z,” Johnson said. “We come back six months later and we’ll follow up. We make sure that, we may not catch everything, but the one thing we don’t want to miss is a school shooting.”

Parents like Christina Grandison are wrestling with whether or not to keep their children home.

“I actually kept them home yesterday because of the threat on Monday,” she said. “I thought 9/11 yesterday, maybe someone is crazy enough to actually do something.”

But Grandison said she can’t keep her daughter home forever.

So Thursday she brought her daughter back to Blake High School.

Just a few hours later, Tampa police said a school resource officer found two handguns in a 15-year-old student’s backpack.

“My heart sank,” Grandison said.

Tampa police said that teen had .45 caliber and 9 millimeter handguns in his backpack on school campus.

“I don’t even want to bring my kids to school because you don’t know what can happen, you don’t know if my son could’ve been in that bathroom and that gun shoot out if he’s trying to do something or hurt one of my kids, that’s crazy, that’s dangerous,” Marivella Molina said.

To make matters even worse, Johnson said, both of those firearms had a live round in the chamber.

Johnson said he has kids of his own. He has tough conversations with them on a daily basis, and recommends other parents do the same.

“Part of the conversation is introducing my firearms and what they’re for,” Johnson said. “The other conversation is this: you’re young, you’ve got your life ahead of you.”

“Don’t get caught with friends that are carrying guns,” he said. “Make sure you’re that student, that strong student, that lets your peers know the right thing to do.”

Police are still working to learn where the guns came from, but one of them was stolen from a car.

“We know that one of the firearms was taken in an auto burglary and that is our biggest push to our community,” Johnson said. “You have to lock your doors, you have to secure your firearms. If they’re going to be inside your, car put it in the glove compartment and lock it.”

The Tampa Police Department is partnering with the Hillsborough County Public Library Cooperative to offer free gun locks to the community.

Citizens can get free gun locks at the Tampa Police Department Headquarters, the District 1, District 2 or District 3 buildings.

The locks can also be picked up at Robert W. Saunders, Sr. Public Library, the Jan K. Platt Regional Library, the North Tampa Branch Library, or the New Tampa Regional Library.

Tampa police say the weapons were found after a search of students who were reportedly seen by staff vaping in the bathroom.

“The discovery of loaded firearms in the possession of a teen on a school campus is deeply troubling and alarming,” Chief Lee Bercaw said in a statement. “Our School Resource Officers work tirelessly to maintain a safe learning environment, and they play a vital role in identifying and addressing potential threats before they can escalate. While we are thankful that no one was injured, this incident serves as a stark reminder of the critical importance of gun safety and that we must all continue working together to prevent such occurrences.”

He was charged with two counts of possession of a weapon on school grounds. Additional charges are possible.

The teen was taken to the Juvenile Assessment Center and the investigation is ongoing.

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