San Leandro High Students Not Surprised by Gun Discoveries

The recent discoveries of guns both on and off the San Leandro High School campus have caused differing reactions among the student body.

One a week ago Friday and two more were last week.

But the recurring themes seemed to be that there was nothing surprising about the events and that none of the students questioned seemed outwardly worried or stressed.

“I wasn't shocked,” said junior Omar Cisneros. “I'm used to the idea that there are bad kids here.”

Bianca Hererra, a sophomore, and Lydia Calderon, a senior, both said they weren't surprised at all.

Several students seemed to think the problem is much more common than school officials believe.

Kayla Ely, a senior and member of the wrestling team, said casually, “Around here people bring guns to school pretty often.”(See Kayla Ely's .)

Calderon agreed, saying, “I think it happens with people [who] want to flash it around and show it off. There's a lot of negative attention.”

Students had differing opinions on how well the administration dealt with the circumstances.

Hererra thought that school officials responded in the best way they could. She believed that the school is well prepared for situations like this, and that their actions last week demonstrated this.

“Living in San Leandro, you see that type of thing all the time,” she explained.

But Razada Cain, president of the San Leandro Academy for Multimedia, disagreed. The fact that a student was found with a gun on campus without the school being put on lockdown or otherwise affected by it concerned her.

Cain said she felt somewhat unsafe “because of how the school dealt with it.”

Ophelia Morreale, a senior and cheerleader, also voiced concern about how the administration chose to inform students and parents.

Morreale said she first heard about the incident when her parents  got a phone call about the situation sent out by the school's automated system. When her parents questioned her about it, she had been unable to explain further because it was her first time hearing of it as well.

Ely's story was similar. She said with visible irritation that she'd heard about the incident “from a piece of paper three days after it happened.”

Given the nature of the events, the topic of safety is obviously a concern. The fact that three similar incidents occurred at or near the school within a week of one another obviously heightens this concern.

San Leandro students seem to feel worried, but relatively okay for the time being.

“It's not enough to make me not want to go back to school,” Ely said.

Cisneros did admit feeling less safe but not only because of these three incidents.

“Now that kids from Oakland are coming here and some of Oakland is really bad, I feel less safe,” he explained, correlating this to the recent events.

Cisneros also felt uninformed.

The question remains whether think the administration's future actions can ease their anxieties and prevent this from happening again.

While students have not been given specific details from any official sources, rumors about police dogs and increased security personnel presence in the future have been going around.

Ely doesn't think this will help. “Constant security will make students nervous,” she said. She thinks the emphasis should be on prevention and suggested seminars on guns and safety.

“You can stop students from bringing a gun to school, but I'm more worried about why they need to have them at all,” Ely said.