Parents in Highland Park are calling for more school security measures after a series of safety incidents, including a student who was arrested this week for bringing a gun to school.
The latest incident happened around 1:39 p.m. Tuesday at TrueNorth Educational Cooperative 804 in Highland Park.
The Highland Park Police Department responded to a call of a student with a firearm at the special education cooperative school.
The student, a juvenile, was taken into custody and a firearm was recovered.
City officials said there were no shots fired and no one was injured.
Officers did not learn of any indication that the student had intent to harm others.
A preliminary investigation did not identify any additional suspect or threat to surrounding areas, city officials said, adding “public safety is the highest priority of the City.”
Authorities said that state law prohibits them from releasing further information to the public.
The police department was increasing patrols near all schools in Highland Park out of an abundance of caution following the incident.
The incident led to parents speaking out about their concerns during the public comment portion of this week’s District 113 board meeting.
Suzanne Wahl, a parent of a junior at Highland Park High School, said there have been several serious security incidents at schools in Highland Park.
Her child was “on the floor for two hours” on April 4 when Highland Park High School went into hard lockdown for a gun incident, she said.
Wahl also referenced a student murdering another student a block away from the high school in August 2023 and a social media threat at Deerfield High School earlier this month.
Wahl said that while it did not occur in District 113, the student who brought a gun to TrueNorth Educational Cooperative 804 was “terrifying.”
The mother called the school district’s core security layer “broken” and was upset that weapons detection devices at school entrances were not being more widely implemented.
“We have a proven shortage of security staff as we pay way below neighboring districts. No one can work for less than $20/hour. They can’t,” Wahl said as she called for more security staff.
Enrique Perez, who has a son and daughter at Highland Park High School, also called out the board for not fully implementing metal detectors in schools.
He said the board is now moving toward implementing trained canines in the schools.
“What’s changed? Why do we want bomb-sniffing dogs all of a sudden? Do you have some information, some intelligence from the police or some other agency, a threat assessment that maybe bombs and explosives are in the threat matrix?” Perez said.
“You’re not even fully utilizing the metal detectors. Every major event at Highland Park High School that I’ve been to in the evening the metal detectors are pushed off to the side. They are not evening being used,” he added.