Elijah Robinson, 18, is being held Thursday night on a gun charge after police say he went to St. Anne School with a pistol in his pocket, looking for the dean of students. Robinson was already serving a week-long suspension from the school when he returned was stopped in a hallway and sent to the office. That is where authorities say he pulled the gun and announced he was going to kill the dean of students.
The school superintendent here admits the handling of the incident "wasn't perfect" but that they did the best they could, even though that meant the armed, suspended student got into the building, walked the halls, was sent to the office and pulled a gun during a 45-minute time period before police were called.
By the time Kankakee County sheriff's deputies got there during the Monday afternoon scare, 18-year-old Robinson had already left the building. His mother turned him in at the county jail a while later and tonight, he is still being held on $50,000 bond. The preliminary charges are unlawful use of a weapon in a school and disorderly conduct.
This letter to parents from the superintendent offered little additional information, stating: "We have good reason to believe that a student brought a handgun to school. . . The student who brought the handgun to school will be disciplined according to school policy. Upon learning about the handgun being brought to school, we took action to secure the building and contacted the police."
But a county judge has criticized school officials for the delay in contacting police and for allowing Robinson to leave while allegedly armed.
The I-Team has found that it is an increasingly common scenario-armed students plotting violence against teachers and staff. Thursday night on Eyewitness News at 10 p.m. the ABC7 I-Team speaks to the teachers who have been attacked, and how they have handled their lives on the line.
"He slammed the door, and he came back in, he said everybody up against the wall, that stuff's not going to happen again and he fired three shots up into the air," said Derrick Schonauer, Normal Community High School.
"I took him, and I plunked him in a chair, and I said 'Don't move'," said Mike Gannon, former teacher.
The gun has not been found in that Kankakee County school incident, according to Sheriff's Deputy Chief Ken McCabe. Even though there were no shots fired and nobody was hurt, there is a top-to-bottom review by law enforcement and school district officials, because it could have gone bad very quickly.
