MIDDLETOWN, Ohio – Students bringing guns to school or making threats.
You hear it all the time now and it has everybody – parents, teachers, administrators – alarmed.
There were two more cases of students with weapons in the Tri-State Friday, and officials are trying to balance safety and security with good sound sense.
Sometimes parents and students might disagree about what's too much or too little.
At Middletown High School, two students were sent home after a school resource officer found two BB guns in a backpack.
"We did do a search and we recovered two BB guns. There were no BBs in them nor were there any BBs anywhere else," said principal Carmela Cotter.
The two students will go through the disciplinary process and could face suspension.
A parent who spoke to WCPO said the school did the right thing.
"We got a one call right after the incident … I was pretty impressed with how well they dealt with it," Teresa Dodrill said.
There was another reported incident Friday with a Lockland student and the presence of a weapon outside St. Aloysius Orphanage. Police came and drove the student away.
How much is too much?
Concern has reached the point that a 14-year-old in Texas, Ahmed Mohamed, was taken away in handcuffs and arrested after showing his teacher his homemade clock. She thought it was bomb.
"That seems a little extreme. It seems they maybe jumped to the wrong conclusion," another Middletown parent said.
How much is too little?
Just this week, Cincinnati Medical Massage students complained they weren't protected enough after one of them reported a classmate to police. That classmate supposedly daydreamed about killing her entire class, saying she knew 21 ways to kill people.
That student was expelled but not taken into custody.
Like other parents, Dodrill says times are different.
"We didn't have these thoughts really, you know? We weren't really trying to get away with stuff," Dodrill said. "It's a different day. It's been a long time since I was a teenager but it's much different."
Cotter says Middletown's policy is simple.
"Things that are considered as weapons are weapons and it alarms people and it alarms parents and we want to make sure that everyone feels very safe," Cotter said.
