Gun found at Pleasure Ridge Park High School, student facing charges

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A gun was found Wednesday at Louisville's Pleasure Ridge Park High School after an apparent fight in the cafeteria.

Police were called to investigate the report of a gun at the school around 11 a.m. Jefferson County Public Schools Communications Manager Mark Hebert said a pellet gun was found in a trash can outside the school, and one student is facing a criminal charge of having a gun on school property.

Witnesses said they saw a student with a gun in his backpack. A woman on the scene said her 14-year-old son was involved in the fight with a boy he's had problems with before.

"I guess the boy, they felt like he wanted to fight," Talisha Young said. "So he followed my son into the bathroom before lunch, and they fought one-on-one. He lost the fight — I guess — in the bathroom. So when my son went to lunch to sit at the table, he had three other guys come and jumped my son. They were kicking my son, they were punching on him, everything."

Videos sent to WDRB News show a fight inside the school, but none of the video is clear enough to see a gun.

"Any time that you hear about a gun being on school property is certainly concerning to our families and it's concerning to us. We want to make sure that we address this appropriately," JCPS spokeswoman Renee Murphy said. "And from what I know at this time, all of our protocols were followed. Police responded. Our JCPS security investigations team was here on the scene as well to make sure that the building was secure. And we want to make sure that everyone knows that the students are indeed safe here."

Murphy said no one was hurt, and parents who arrived at the school were allowed to pick up their children early.

Young said she learned after the fight that school resource officers are no longer in JCPS buildings. The school board ended its contracts with armed officers to create its own security force in 2019.