After shooting, Wilson High students wary about security

PORTSMOUTH

Students said Thursday that sneaking into Woodrow Wilson High School from locked doors happens routinely and that it's easy.

While school officials said side and rear doors can be opened only with a swipe card or by someone on the inside, a group of students said there's another way: the pencil.

Students use them sometimes to prop open locked doors for classmates, Rusty Merritt, 16, a sophomore said.

Rusty and his peers stood outside Wilson after school Thursday, complaining about how security is handled. The day before, school authorities and police said a student entered the building through a back door and fired shots inside.

No one was injured, and a 15-year-old was arrested.

School officials said they didn't know whether metal detectors that they insisted would be used hours after the incident were in use Thursday. However, students said they weren't and can't remember them ever being used.

They described a morning scene where students were randomly patted down and their bags, hats and socks searched.

"They should have checked more people, maybe even everybody, to make sure they didn't have any kind of contraband," said Asim Smith, a 16-year-old sophomore.

Lindsay Hudson, a 14-year-old freshman, said, "They should have at least used the metal detectors today.

"You would think they would have had a wake-up call."

Some students said there was a beefed- up police presence outside the school at the start of the day and during lunch in the cafeteria. They said there was a lot of discussion among themselves about the shooting. Several said that they recall more than three shots being fired, as was reported by police.

Joseph Wiggins, the division's director of communications, said that Wilson, like the city's other schools, has a safety plan that it followed on Wednesday.

Superintendent David Stuckwisch said the division employs the same security procedures that "pretty much every school division in South Hampton Roads uses in their buildings."

Asked whether the division could do anything to improve its safety and security measures, Stuckwisch said, "I'm not sure what we should change."

Stuckwisch said he's relieved that no one was injured. However, he said, "We've got to move on to other things in this school system."

"That's a one-time event and it's done, and we've got to move on to the SOLs, " he said, referring to the state's standardized tests.

Stuckwisch said that Wilson Principal Timothy E. Johnson was busy Thursday. The principal's "first and foremost duty" is to "prepare for the SOLs that are coming up in a couple of weeks," Stuckwisch said.

School officials did not provide The Virginian-Pilot with Wilson's Thursday attendance numbers, but some students estimated that most teachers were at school while anywhere from a third to half of Wilson's nearly 1,200 students didn't show.

Betty DiGennaro said she let her daughter stay home despite a recorded message from school officials on Wednesday that stated that security would be increased and counselors would be available. Brittany was still shaken by the shooting, her mother said.

Students described pandemonium in the lunchroom Wednesday sometime after 12:15 p.m. as they tried to escape after the shooting.

Wiggins said three staff members chased and caught the suspect outside the school and a police officer provided the handcuffs.

The city's top prosecutor, Commonwealth's Attorney Earle C. Mobley, took steps Thursday to try the student as an adult.

During the student's arraignment in Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court, a probation officer provided information on prior offenses, including several counts of assault and battery.

The student, whose name is being withheld because of his age, allegedly approached a locked door and brandished a gun to get someone inside to open it, according to a summary read in court. The Virginian-Pilot generally does not name juveniles unless they have been charged as adults.

The student is accused of going into a classroom and brandishing the gun, then leaving and firing into the wall of another occupied classroom.

He then went to a crowded cafeteria, where he fired shots into the ceiling before putting the gun on a table and running away, according to a court summary. The student had been suspended earlier in the week for disorderly conduct or fighting, school officials said.

According to information at the hearing, the student's prior record also includes a probation violation. He was, at one time, committed to the Department of Juvenile Justice and was released on probation in April 2008.

A judge set a hearing for May 17.

The youth was arraigned on charges of both brandishing and discharging a firearm in an occupied building and underage possession of a firearm. Police have said other charges may be pending.

Mobley would not comment on what kind of prison time the charges carry. But, according to the state code, if the suspect is tried as an adult, the three charges would carry a combined penalty of up to 16 years.

Mobley called the school shooting a "very troubling situation."

A man who identified himself as the suspect's father said that his son was on probation and was being monitored by a probation officer and counselors.

"He was in and out of trouble at school, no question about that.

"He was going through the system," he said. "But nothing like this right here, what happened yesterday."

The father said he has full custody of him and was out of town Wednesday.

"We really don't know why he flared up to this magnitude," he said. "There's a whole lot that I still don't even understand."

His son had run indoor track at Wilson, which helped him, he said.

"During this time, he was very excited about track," he said. "He showed a whole lot of potential that he could move to the next level."

Pilot writer Patrick Wilson contributed to this report.

Cheryl Ross, (757) 446-2443, cheryl.ross@pilotonline.com