Student found with gun on Clark-Pleasant elementary school bus

WHITELAND, Ind. (WISH) — The Whiteland-headquartered Clark-Pleasant Community School Corp. is praising students and a bus driver for their quick action when a gun was found in a student’s backpack on a bus.

According to the school system, around 8:45 a.m. Wednesday, a school bus headed to Break-O-Day Elementary in New Whiteland reported a potential safety threat. The school district’s police department is investigating.

“A student reported that another student had a gun in a backpack on the school bus,” the school corporation said in a statement to parents.

The bus driver confiscated the gun, and the student, who attended Break-O-Day Elementary, was detained.

The gun is believed to have come from the student’s home, according to Clark-Pleasant Superintendent Tim Edsell. The school corporation did not provide any information on the age or grade of the student.

Edsell said, following the incident, the school day was operating as normal. “I believe the students that saw the gun from the student who had the gun acted tremendously.”

Edsell says they will do everything they can to make sure students and staff are safe. “We are going to follow our protocols just like we did today as quick and safely to make sure everyone is safe as possible. To educate all of our students from the families to us to make sure that they realize it’s not appropriate to bring a weapon of any kind to school.”

Jerry Insko, a New Whiteland resident, said about the incident, “I couldn’t imagine. I mean that’s a very scary situation all the way around.”

He says there should be more safety measures on the buses.

“They should have more checkpoints for the kids getting on and off buses and maybe walk through metal detectors and going into the school they should have them. I mean we need to keep our kids safe around here. I don’t know how the child got the gun, but they should look into the parents, and there’s other things they can do to stop this kind of stuff.”