SORRENTO Primary School was in damage control last week after the second incident involving offensive student behaviour.
Angry parents contacted The News to say a grade three student had taken what they described as a BB gun to the school, threatened other students before allegedly pointing it at the head of a prep girl, and allegedly shooting another boy in the foot when he tried to take the gun away. The pellet did no damage and the boy was unharmed.
This incident follows weekend mayhem when children from the school were accused of jumping the fence of the Sorrento Early Learning Centre playground and “generally [getting] into mischief, throwing stuff around, removing bikes and riding them around the car park and using seats as Frisbees”. (See “Kids behaving badly in broad daylight” The News 30/10/19).
Principal Megan Dallas would not comment on the gun incident other than to say: “Earlier this week, an incident occurred at the school involving a student bringing a toy plastic pellet gun to school. The item was immediately confiscated.
“The school has taken appropriate disciplinary action following the incident.”
The Education Department’s Dave Sheridan later confirmed that the gun was a “toy that fires plastic pellets” and not a BB gun.
The Herald Sun reported that the gun was a Cobra M206 model which can be bought overseas and online. The News contacted police who would not confirm or deny the make of the gun but said “[we]…can confirm it was a toy gun, not an imitation firearm or prohibited weapon.”
The gun was handed in to Rosebud police station on Tuesday afternoon and was expected to be destroyed.
Police said they would “not be taking any further action in relation to this incident”.
One angry parent, Charles, told Radio 3AW: “That gun was aimed at my child.”
“We told the school, the people in the office there, that we won’t be coming back for a couple of days.”
Charles said he was unhappy with how the school has dealt with the incident. “We’ve kept our child away but we haven’t had any contact from the school at all. It seems to be protecting the child who has done it.”
Lucy, who has several grandchildren at the school, said the boy “kept [the gun] in his bag until lunch time and then he got it out and waved it around and was shooting people,” she said.
“He held it to the head of a little prep girl.
“The school didn’t call the police or anything, but the mother did later on.”
First published in the Southern Peninsula News – 5 November 2019
