Gun brought to SF high school raises concern, spurs meeting

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Some parents of students at one San Francisco high school are worried about their kids' safety after a student from another school sharing the campus showed up with a gun.

When students from a San Francisco continuation high school moved to the John O'Connell High School campus in the new year, there was some concern. Now that concern is growing due to the gun on campus incident.

There's a meeting at the school Thursday night to try to come up with solutions and force the district to take action. Parents will be briefed about the incident during the meeting. Both parents and the district are taking a pro-active approach after a student was found with a gun.

Students from Ida B. Wells High School moved onto the same campus in January. Ida B. Wells is a continuation high school for kids who want to complete their high school diploma. The student with the weapon attended Ida B. Wells. On January 21, both O'Connell and Wells were on lockdown because of that incident. A few students told the school resource officer and security about the gun and police detained the student for possession of a deadly weapon with the intent to assault.

O'Connell High has been a model school and many parents are upset that the district made the decision to put the two schools in the same building.

"They never had any problems and once they moved police have been at that school every week," said parent Araceli Espinoza.

"Really the parents wanted an opportunity to galvanize around school safety and take their voice and present some recommendations to the school district on what they believe is best for their students, and we support that, actually very much honor that," said Mark Alvarado, Principal of John O'Connell High School.

Ida B. Wells will be at this location until December 2015. Parents will likely now ask that the move come sooner.