Shaler Area High School student arrested after allegedly bringing gun on school bus
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — The Millvale and Shaler police departments say they've arrested a 16-year-old student who was seen on video bringing a gun onto a school bus.
"I actually did not send her to school," Tanya Mellinger, whose daughter is a senior at Shaler Area High School, said on Friday.
She says she found out a student had a gun on the bus Thursday afternoon after she saw a video on Facebook.
"I never got anything before that until the next morning and I got a robocall," she said.
Millvale police chief Tim Komorski says his department wasn't notified of the incident until 3 p.m. Thursday.
Officers executed a search warrant on the juvenile's home Friday morning. Komorski says the gun in question wasn't found but several different types of ammunition were.
The student has been suspended but parents think more needs to be done.
"If he had possession of the gun the entire day, that's an entire day that he could've done absolutely anything with that and my child's in that school, other kids are in that school and I just feel like that's concerning to me," Mellinger said.
In a statement to KDKA-TV, the district said in part, "In response to this incident, the district will conduct a careful and complete review of security protocols including but not limited to enhanced screening measures."
This isn't the first time the district has made headlines in recent months. In September, a bullet was found on a school bus and picked up by an elementary student. Police concluded an eighth-grade student was responsible.
"I hope that the school district and police handle this correctly," said Mellinger.
Komorski said this isn't the student's first run-in with the law. He says he hopes the district attorney will take that into consideration when he's reviewing the case.
Editor's note: A previous version of this story said school resource officers were made aware Thursday morning instead of Thursday afternoon.
