‘Take action.’ Parents confront Fayette board after student took loaded gun into school

Hours after a 15-year-old student took a loaded gun into Lexington’s Henry Clay High School despite metal detectors and layers of security, two parents asked the Fayette County school board to take action.

District officials say they don’t yet know how the student got the loaded gun into the building. Henry Clay has metal detectors and students bags are searched. The school was on lockdown Thursday morning. No one was hurt.

District officials say they don’t have any reason to suspect the student intended to use the gun or that there was any credible evidence that a threat was made against students, staff or the campus. The student was arrested.

Parent Barbara Smith, speaking at the board’s regular monthly meeting, said that while a number of things in the district’s 10-point safety plan worked well Thursday, “overall it failed.”

“I find it shocking and irresponsible that classes can be held tomorrow at Henry Clay when I hear that we do not understand how that individual was allowed to enter the school building today,” Smith said. “How as a parent are we supposed to feel comfortable with that?”

She said school board members should think about what happened Thursday and “how to correct it.”

“You need to look at this situation through a very narrow lens and take action,” she said.

Parent Matt Stacy, whose daughter attends Henry Clay, said the incident should not have happened. He asked how Henry Clay could hold classes Friday when a student got in with a loaded gun Thursday.

“I never imagined that I would have to get a text message from my daughter in a barricaded room in a school with metal detectors, a failed process obviously, that we paid for,” Stacy said.

Before the parents spoke at the regular monthly school board meeting, Fayette Superintendent Demetrus Liggins reiterated the details he provided about the incident at a Thursday news conference. He said Henry Clay High School is a safe place and commended the staff, police officers and others for their response Thursday.

“In our current national climate, it is natural to jump to a worst case scenario and the adults in the building went above and beyond today to keep our students calm and reassured,” Liggins said.

Before the parents raised concerns during a public comment period, school board chairman Tyler Murphy said he didn’t think there was anyone in the school board meeting room or in the community “who wasn’t shaken by today’s events.”

Murphy said every decision made placed student safety at the center. He said he was grateful to Henry Clay staff and he was proud of the district team.

School board members did not respond after Smith and Stacy spoke.

But district spokeswoman Lisa Deffendall told the Herald-Leader Thursday evening, “We have shared all the information that is public at this time.”