Dog finds shotgun at local high school

A 17-year-old Clarendon High School student was expelled and charged with a third degree felony last week for bringing a gun to school.

Chief Deputy Butch Blackburn says the Donley County Sheriff’s Department received a call from the school requesting a deputy last Tuesday afternoon, October 3. 

The gun had been found in the boy’s vehicle by school officials and Clarence Patterson of the Interquest Detection Canines, a dog service CISD uses to randomly search for narcotics and weapons, Blackburn said.

The boy was arrested for possession of a firearm on school property, and his .12 gauge Winchester shotgun was seized as evidence. He was released on $1,000 bond.

Blackburn said the student stated he had been hunting the day before and had come down with a stomach bug. He reportedly went home vomiting and was still not feeling well when he went to school the next day. The deputy said the boy thought he had taken the gun out of his car.

Dead dove and spent shotgun shells were also found in the student’s vehicle, Blackburn said.

“He usually cleans out his car every time he goes hunting,” the student’s mother said this week. “But he was just so sick he came straight in the house this time.”

Clarendon School Superintendent Monty Hysinger could not comment on the specifics of the student’s case but did confirm a gun had been found on campus.

In addition to narcotics, the trained dogs smell gunpowder residue, Hysinger said. When a dog alerts on a vehicle, the superintendent says the procedure is the dog’s trainer will notify the principal, who will get the student. The student is then asked to open the vehicle, and if the student will not give permission, law enforcement and parents are notified.

“You can’t overlook things that the law says you have to enforce,” Hysinger said.

Carrying firearms on school property violates local district policy as well as state and federal laws. Hysinger said the law also requires students found with weapons to be expelled. He could not comment on what disciplinary action the school took against the student.

The mother said her son was suspended for three days, and an expulsion hearing was held with the superintendent and CHS principal Larry Jeffers last Friday. At that time the student was given a form of expulsion called the Alternative Education Program (AEP) for four weeks. He has been banned from UIL activities and can’t come within 100 feet of the school, she said.

The student’s mother also said that they were told the boy’s case would be kept confidential but that by Thursday people knew about it in Wellington and Stinnett. She believes the school violated the confidentiality rule and said the boy did not give permission for his vehicle to be searched. The family has retained the services of an attorney, she said.

“It was just an innocent, innocent mistake,” the mother said. “It could happen to anybody. I just wish it was over.”

The boy’s parents have appealed to the CISD Board of Trustees. A special meeting has been called for this Friday, October 13, at 1:30 p.m. in the CISD Administration Building.

“I think he has been punished enough,” the mother said.