Three School District 49 students face charges after bringing replica handguns to Horizon Middle School Thursday, according to the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office.

During the school day, the school’s school resource officer (SRO) received multiple reports from students about a student allegedly in possession of a firearm on the campus, according to a news release from the Sheriff’s Office. 

The SRO notified school administration and located the reported student in question. The student, an 11-year-old, was in possession of an airsoft gun shaped as a handgun, the Sheriff’s Office said.

Two 12-year-old students were also found to be in possession of an additional replica handgun. The school was not placed under a lockdown and class operations were uninterrupted.

All three students face two misdemeanor charges: interference with staff, faculty or students of educational institutions and disorderly conduct.

“I want to impress upon parents and guardians the importance of awareness concerning their children. Who they communicate with, what items they bring to school, and their access to contraband or weapons,” El Paso County Sheriff Joe Roybal said in the release.

“While this incident was addressed quickly and without incident, it caused unnecessary fear and the deployment of resources.”

Officials at School District 49 have confirmed communication with parents about the incident.

The incident comes following multiple false threats made online towards various schools in the Colorado Springs area and throughout the country. Last week, Ellicott School District 22 students were sent home after a missing gun was reported on school ground and put its schools into a lockdown.

“School safety is of the utmost importance to my office, and we will continue to monitor and investigate these incidents without hesitation. We are committed to keeping our schools safe and ensuring students have a secure place to learn and grow,” Roybal said.

New safety policy proposed for D-49

Wednesday night during a D-49 board of education work session, board members discussed a potential new policy to add metal detectors and handheld wands for security personnel to create a safer environment by deterring the presence of weapons at schools.

D-49 Director of Safety and Security David Watson said that origin of the proposal came after the Parkland school shooting in Florida in 2018 that killed 17 people, and that they’ve received numerous calls from concerned community members.

In 2020, the district approved the addition of armed security officers at select campuses.

If approved, the detectors would be used on a temporary basis during times when the district “has reasonable cause to believe that weapons or unauthorized contraband are in the possession of any staff member, student or visitor, when there has been a pattern of weapons found at school, or when violence, or the threat of violence has occurred at the school or any School District 49 building.”

“This is literally going to be for moments that we may receive a late-night threat through Safe2Tell that we cannot deem it ‘not credible’ with our law enforcement partners and we have limited time to get back to school in the morning,” Watson said.

“And it would allow us to deploy them with a security team just for that morning – or throughout the day – so that we can add additional reassurance to our community that we are taking additional steps to keep their children safe while they’re in our schools getting an education.”

The new policy will be on the agenda at the board’s next regular meeting Oct. 10 for a vote for approval.