MHS went into lockdown for about 10 minutes on Friday after the Milpitas Police Department (MPD) received a tip at 12:28 p.m. about a juvenile near Augustine Park with a gun, according to an MPD Instagram post. The gun was a replica and contained a blade, the post said.
MPD also initiated a lockdown at Weller Elementary School, Thomas Russell Middle School, and Pomeroy Elementary School due to their proximity to the potential threat, the post said.
“Within a few minutes, officers found the juvenile and determined them to be in possession of a novelty pocketknife designed to resemble a handgun,” the post said.
MPD received the tip from an anonymous reporting party, MPD police officer Mostafa Asefi said. Asefi identified the juvenile at the bus stop in front of MHS based on the reported description, he added. The juvenile was cooperative when Asefi approached and searched him, Asefi said.
“When I checked them, I located the replica firearm in one of the pockets,” Asefi said. “It was not a real firearm, so I just told the dispatch, ‘We can lift the shelter-in-place because I located who did it, and I have them in my possession.’”
The juvenile was a student, but not from MHS, Asefi said. Asefi took the student into custody, he added.
“The student was not trying to be threatening nor state any threat while I was with the police officer during the questioning/apprehension,” Principal and Chief Innovator Wohlman said in an email sent to staff at 1:22 p.m.
In the same email, Wohlman thanked the staff “for responding so quickly.” He would be available after school in the theater to meet with staff who wanted to talk to him, he added. The Wellness Center also expanded its services until 5 p.m. for staff who needed additional support after the incident, Wohlman said.
“We have counselors trained to support students (and) staff when they’re feeling dysregulated because of an incident or a threat that’s reported,” Mental Health School Wellness Specialist Mireya Coronado said.
As of 3:20 p.m., no students had sought support at the Wellness Center specifically for this situation, Coronado said. Even following past gun threats at MHS, there wasn’t an influx of students at the Wellness Center, Coronado said.
“A lot of students are able to just take things not as seriously looking at the pictures, and some of them just don’t consider it to be a credible threat,” Coronado said. “I think they also have a lot of confidence that the schools are keeping them safe.”
There has been a seeming uptick in similar cases at MHS because more students are reporting them, especially after the “See Something, Say Something” initiative, Asefi said. He encourages the community to be more open with the police, he added.
“Although this situation had a positive outcome, some situations where a person possessed a replica firearm in public have had deadly consequences,” the MPD said in its Instagram post.
Wohlman updated the community about the lockdown with a message posted to StudentSquare at 1:33 p.m.
“The safety and security of our students and staff remains our top priority,” Wohlman said in the post.
Erick Johnson, Paarth Gupta, Kevin Ting, and Sidhant Burela contributed to this coverage.
