Elementary school student brought handgun, ammunition to school: Sheriff
Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images
(POWNAL, Vt.) — Police in Vermont are investigating after an elementary school student brought a firearm and dozens of rounds of ammunition to school, authorities said.
A student at Pownal Elementary in Pownal brought an unloaded 9 mm handgun and 67 rounds of ammunition to school on Wednesday, according to the Bennington County Sheriff’s Department.
The student “sent a message about it on social media,” and other students who saw the message reported it to their teachers “immediately,” the sheriff’s department said. The student was safely removed from the classroom and the firearm and ammunition taken from his backpack, the department said.
“Their quick thinking helped stop a bad situation before anyone got hurt,” Sheriff James Gulley said in a news release.
Two students notified Pownal Elementary School administrators that another student had indicated he was bringing a firearm to school, according to Southwest Vermont Supervisory Union Assistant Superintendent Laura Boudreau.
“The administration and campus safety officer met with the student, who admitted to having possession of the firearm in their backpack,” the Southwest Vermont Supervisory Union said in a letter sent to the school’s families. “The student surrendered the firearm to the administration and campus safety officer.”
School administrators contacted Vermont State Police, who dispatched a member of the Bennington County Sheriff’s Department, which is now investigating, the district said.
“At this time there is no indication that there are any further safety concerns to the school community,” the district’s letter stated.
Police did not release information on the age or grade of the student. The school enrolls students in kindergarten to sixth grade.
The district said no additional details will be released at this time amid the ongoing investigation.
Boudreau said they are “incredibly thankful” for the two students who came forward and “are proud of our administrators who followed our carefully researched and planned protocol.”
“Thank you to all of the law enforcement personnel involved in keeping our school community safe, including the Bennington County Sheriff’s Department who is handling this active investigation,” she said in a statement.
Gulley also commended the students.
“This is a reminder that if you see something concerning, say something,” he said. “The students who reported this situation helped protect their school and classmates.”
According to research from the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, 275 guns were brought to school by students under the age of 11 from fall 2017 to spring 2023.
“The majority of these incidents happened during the past two school years (2021-2022 and 2022-2023), which may indicate access to firearms among young people is increasing,” the organization said.
Astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore, Sunita “Suni” Williams and Nick Hague, who are on the International Space Station, discuss the challenges of sending humans to Mars. (ABC News)
(WASHINGTON) — It’s been a lofty goal America’s leaders have set their sights on for generations, and President Donald Trump kicked off his second term by restating his goal of reaching the Red Planet.
“And we will pursue our Manifest Destiny into the stars, launching American astronauts to plant the Stars and Stripes on the planet Mars,” he said during his Jan. 20 inauguration speech.
Elon Musk — the CEO of space technology company SpaceX — has the president’s ear this time around, suggesting we’ll see an even harder push to make the 140 million-mile journey to Mars.
“Can you imagine how awesome it will be to have American astronauts plant the flag on another planet for the first time?” Musk said on Inauguration Day.
It will take a herculean effort from NASA to make a mission to Mars a reality, experts told ABC News. It must build on the Artemis program — which Trump established in 2017 to build a human presence on the moon — to get people setting foot on Mars, according to NASA.
“NASA’s current moon to Mars exploration approach calls for using missions on and around the moon under the Artemis campaign to prepare for future human missions to Mars,” an agency spokesperson said in a statement sent to ABC News. “We’re looking forward to hearing more about the Trump administration’s plans for our agency and expanding exploration for the benefit of all, including sending American astronauts on the first human mission to the Red Planet.”
However, the mission can’t simply launch whenever the crews and technology are ready. Scott Hubbard ran the agency’s Mars program from 2000 to 2001, served as director of its Ames Research Center for 4 years and was in executive management at NASA for 20 years.
He noted that there are specific windows for when to launch the mission. When Earth and Mars align in their orbits around the sun, the distance and energy required for a spacecraft to travel to Mars are minimized.
The next window is just a year and a half away.
“Even with the most powerful rockets we have, there is a window of 20 days every 26 months,” he told ABC News. “And that’s it. I mean, it’s literally be there or forget about it.”
Whenever the mission takes off, it will be an incredibly challenging endurance test filled with problems never encountered before, requiring a crew of astronauts daring enough to make the journey.
Astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita “Suni” Williams have been getting a taste of that. The pair have been in space for nine months, with their planned 8-day trip to the International Space Station (ISS) getting an unexpected extension for safety reasons.
“So once we transitioned from not returning on our spacecraft, we transitioned into being a crew member, on the international crew, members on the International Space Station,” Wilmore told ABC News. “And that’s what we’ve been doing since we’ve been here.”
Williams noted that this kind of flexibility will be key for anyone hoping to go to Mars.
“I’d say nothing goes as planned and be ready for that,” she told ABC News. “You know, a little challenge, a little adversity brings out the best in us.”
This experience may one day be useful to astronauts making the 7-month journey to Mars, their fellow ISS crew member Nick Hague told ABC News.
“You know, being up here, it’s not about a singular mission. It’s not about a singular trip to Mars,” he said. “We’re part of a long legacy of exploration, of human exploration, of space, and we’re doing our little part to try to advance that.”
The ISS crew is researching some of the logistical challenges that the long journey to Mars would present.
“How do we sustain ourselves? We can’t pack all the resources we need on a trip to Mars and sustain a long mission,” Hague said. “So we’re going to have to figure out how to grow the food that we’re going to need.”
The astronauts would also need to be able to replace equipment that breaks during the trip.
“So you cannot take every single spare part with you,” Wilmore said. “You’re going to have to have some way of additive manufacturing — 3D printing.”
The trip would also expose astronauts to conditions that could lead to multiple health problems, including the potential risk of cancer and mental health issues, along with bone and muscle problems, space physiologist Rihana Bokhari told ABC News. Getting messages back to Earth could take a while as well, she noted.
“That communication delay is going to be quite large when it comes to Mars, about 20 minutes each way at the furthest,” she said.
Setting foot on the fourth planet from the sun may be the goal, but it’s only half the battle. A round-trip mission would take at least three years.
“In addition to transportation, you need a habitat. We have not yet built a place for astronauts to live for the 6 or 7 months it would take to get there and have a really reliable life support,” Hubbard, the former NASA Mars lead, told ABC News.
Hubbard believes NASA should be thinking longer term for its first manned mission to Mars.
“Not all opportunities are equal,” he said. “And if you were to look out to 2033, you see an opportunity that comes only once every 15 years. You can get the most mass to Mars of any of these other 20-day windows.”
Considering the length of time for the window from now, Hubbard noted that the Apollo missions followed a similar timeline — from the first tests in 1961 to Apollo 11 landing on the moon in 1969.
“And it’s going to take not just technological advancement but political will,” he said. “It’s going to take people to see that this is part of what we do as human beings.”
(LOS ANGELES) — The Los Angeles City Council voted against reinstating Kristin Crowley as its fire chief on Tuesday after she was fired by Mayor Karen Bass in the wake of the Palisades and Eaton fires.
The city council upheld Crowley’s firing by a vote of 13-2.
Crowley appealed the mayor’s decision nearly a week after her firing. The LA City Council held a hearing Tuesday where Crowley spoke and answered questions, but the council was not swayed to vote in her favor.
The fire chief denied Bass’ allegations that she refused to conduct an investigation into the fires.
“I said that the LAFD is not capable, nor do we have the proper resources, to adequately conduct an after-action report for the Palisades Fire due to the sheer magnitude, scope and complexity of the incident. We are already understaffed, under-resourced, under-funded, and based on my knowledge of the LAFD’s resources and capabilities, I recommended simply to collaborate with Gov. [Gavin] Newsom’s already selected and funded agency, Fire Safety Research Institute,” Crowley told the city council on Tuesday.
Crowley also said 1,000 firefighters were sent home the morning of the fires because LAFD did not have enough apparatus for them, denying another allegation made by Bass.
“We did not have enough apparatus to put them on. Because of the budget cuts and lack of investments in our fleet maintenance, over 100 of our fire engines, fire trucks and ambulances sat broken down in our maintenance yards, unable to be used to help during one of the worst wildfire events in our history,” she said.
Crowley also denied that she did not inform the mayor of the dangerous weather event.
“The LAFD engaged in all of its standard communications, including emailing two separate media advisories, conducting multiple live and recorded media interviews about the predicted extreme weather and fire danger, and also notifying city officials about the upcoming weather events. The Emergency Management Department also plays a key role in notifying the mayor’s office and city officials. And the mayor’s office itself also set out multiple media messages prior to the fire’s warnings,” Crowley said.
Bass said she did not know the weather forecast before leaving for Ghana for a planned diplomatic trip before the fires broke out, saying the fire chief did not call to warn her. Bass has faced backlash for not being in the city when the fires broke out.
While she was removed from her position, Crowley will stay with the department, according to the LA Mayor’s Office. Crowley exercised her civil service rights to stay with the department at a lower rank with duties to
(MATTHEWS, N.C.) — A North Carolina woman is charged with attempted murder after allegedly locking her boyfriend in a storage unit, where he was stuck for several days with no food or water before being rescued, police said.
Robin Deaton, 52, of Matthews, North Carolina, has been arrested on attempted murder and kidnapping charges, the Monroe Police Department said. She was booked into jail early Thursday after a manhunt by police.
Her 51-year-old boyfriend had been locked in the unit on Thursday, police said. Deaton allegedly convinced him to crawl to the back of the unit to get her something, then slammed it shut and said, “This is what you get,” according to police.
He had no food, water or power source, and there were two locks on the storage unit, police said.
The man called 911 on Monday and told the dispatcher that his girlfriend had locked him in her storage unit at Cooper Storage in Monroe.
“I’ve been locked in a storage unit for about a week now, and I’ve just now found my phone,” he said in the 911 call, released by Union County Emergency Services. “My girlfriend locked me in here. She doubled up my lock, and I don’t know how she put me in it but she put me in here.”
He said he was in unit 43 and his phone was about to die. When asked if he needed emergency services, he said, “I just need to get out of here.”
“I just can’t breathe. I haven’t had nothing to drink or anything,” he said.
Officers responded to the facility around 1:15 p.m. Monday, according to the incident report.
The man was taken to an area hospital but has since been released, Charlotte, North Carolina, ABC affiliate WSOC reported.
The incident report listed the crime as false imprisonment, though detectives sought higher charges for Deaton’s arrest warrant based on the investigation, the police spokesperson said.
