Student brings air pellet gun to Lakewood
By TONY RENGIFO
SNN Staff Writer
For the fourth time this year, a student has been found with a gun at Lakewood High School.
Senior Rodarius Green, 18, was arrested Wednesday (Jan. 25) at the end of the school day, before he could get on the school bus to go home, according to Lakewood’s school resource officer Lerric Boyd.
Boyd said a student reported to a teacher that they had seen Green post a picture on Instagram with the gun in the early morning. Boyd said he located Green at the end of the day, searched his backpack and found an air pellet gun. It was unclear whether the gun was loaded.
Though a BB gun and air pellet gun are not the exact same thing, it is against the law to bring them to school. In fact another student was arrested back on Oct. 31 for possessing a BB gun. The first incident happened in August when a 15-year-old boy walked around Lakewood High School’s campus with a loaded gun all day. At the end of the day, the student was brought down to Boyd’s office to be arrested on an outstanding warrant. That’s when they found the gun in his backpack.
“To bring a weapon to school is totally unacceptable,” Boyd said. “The spin on it: These guns, they look real. They look like the gun I’m carrying. (If he were) to point that gun at someone, they’d think it’s a real gun.”
“(It looked) similar to the gun that we confiscated two weeks ago,” said Boyd, referring to the 9 millimeter Beretta that was stolen and brought on campus Jan. 10 that resulted in three student arrests. The gun was found after students took a selfie with it in a school bathroom and posted the photo on social media.
Green will be charged with possession of a gun on school campus and is being held at the Pinellas County Jail on $5,000 bail.
Boyd said the situation could be dangerous as air pellet guns look like a real gun, and shot off in close range to someone, as it could kill them.
“I see it as a menace to society. It’s embarrassing. It makes me afraid for the youth and their futures. I’m really angry at the attitudes, the ‘I don’t care’ attitudes that young people take regards to weapons,” said principal Erin Savage .
Students who bring a weapon, or gun in these instances, are either expelled or re-assigned to another school. Green, who is well-known by students at Lakewood and in the community due to his status as a rapper, will not be able to come back and graduate as a Lakewood student.
“An 18-year-old killed a 19-year-old just on Monday (Jan. 23),” said Savage, referring to a local crime. “The attitude of taking a life or carrying a weapon that could end life, it just (angers) me.”
She said it is difficult to understand why students keep bringing weapons to school when there are consequences.
Junior Isabella Vieira agreed.
“I, of course, don’t think pellet guns or real guns should be allowed on campus. Nobody should have to tell you not to bring a gun to school anymore. You should have common sense,” said Vieira, who knows Green.
As for the case of preventing these types of situations, such as installing metal detectors, Savage said “it’s up to the district to suggest it, most likely to superintendent Mike Grego and then, probably whoever is in charge of security.”
Savage said her main hope is that students “make better choices.”
“Focus on school and growing, (and) focus on adulthood. Don’t ruin your adulthood with this nonsense. Focus on positive (things), going to college, the military, doing your job, taking care of your family if you choose to have one,” she said.