Rock Hill Schools holds community conversation after three guns found in schools

ROCK HILL, S.C. (WBTV) - A community conversation was just what the Rock Hill Schools wanted and it was what the district put together. This meeting was recently put on the calendar specifically to address the gun issue inside Rock Hill schools.

The message since these guns were found has been this is not just a school issue, it is an everyone issue. In less than a month, Rock Hill Schools found a gun at South Pointe High, Dutchman Creek Middle and Rock Hill High.

A student and parent were arrested at South Pointe for trying to take the backpack with the gun in it after-school administrators wanted to search it. At Dutchman Creek, the gun fell out of a student’s waistband after two students were fighting with each other. Police told WBTV that the student then pointed the gun at his classmates. Then, a tip and search led to deputies finding a gun inside a student’s car at Rock Hill High. All this led to an outcry from parents about safety.

”Parents really wanted to have a say. They wanted to be able to ask questions. And in the name of transparency we felt like that was necessary,” says Lindsay Machak, Rock Hill Schools spokesperson.

That is why this meeting was created, according to her. The district put together a panel of community stakeholders like law enforcement and our local justice department.

”We want people to be able to ask questions and get answers to that today and walk out feeling like they know more about what they were wondering about or something they’ve been thinking for a while now,” she says.

One parent says she would have liked to see more discussion of what action was being taken while answering some of those questions.

“There were a lot of questions that were addressed but I didn’t hear but I didn’t hear much action. I heard a lot of what they’re planning to do or what was in the works,” she says.

The school district says it is going to continue those randomized searches it ramped up since the second gun was found. The safety director says the district is still looking into other ways it can prevent any kind of contraband in schools and asks for you to contact them with your suggestions.

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