Editor’s note: We updated this story at 5:15 p.m
BAY COUNTY, Fla. (WMBB) — A 17-year-old Rutherford High School student is in serious trouble after allegedly bringing a gun to school on Wednesday.
A Bay County Sheriff’s deputy and Rutherford’s principal confronted the student when he arrived on campus Wednesday morning.
Local authorities said it might have been a dispute over a former girlfriend that motivated 17-year-old Ryan Gregg to bring a handgun to Rutherford High School Wednesday morning.
They said he had a gun in his backpack.
“Administration at Rutherford High School received a tip from a student that there was possibly a young man on campus that did a social media post of having a gun and causing some threats,” BCSO Captain Myron Guilford said. “First thing this morning, we were able to locate that young man.”
BCSO provided a photo of the social media post, it reads “You don’t want to see me if it’s true.”
“Our understanding is that the post was made in reference to a situation with an ex-girlfriend,” BCSO Sheriff Tommy Ford said.
Investigators said Gregg admitted to bringing the gun to school and that it was him holding the gun on the social media post.
Bay District Schools Superintendent Bill Husfelt is once again urging parents to pay more attention to their children’s behavior.
“Unless the families do more work with their children at home, we’re going to continue to have these problems and we can’t target one school or say it’s that one school, it’s not, it’s everywhere, it’s happening everywhere and it’s happening to very stable families, to unstable families, homeless kids, rich kids, white kids, black kids, there’s not one little thing that you can use as an identifier to find these children,” Husfelt said.
When students make threats or bring weapons to school, there will be zero tolerance.
“I’ve been sheriff coming up on six, almost six, seven years now, we’ve had a hurricane, active shooters, pandemic, and other issues,” Ford said. “Nothing has kept me awake more at night than the safety of our schools and the fear of a school shooting.”
Investigators said they’re still trying to find out how Gregg got the gun. They said additional charges are possible.
Gregg is currently charged with possession of a weapon on a school campus.
Editor’s note: We have updated this story with a video of the full news conference.
PANAMA CITY, Fla. (WMBB) — A Rutherford student was arrested Wednesday after bringing a weapon to school, Bay District School officials said.
“This morning, thanks to students who reported something, we recovered a weapon from a student’s car that was parked in the parking lot,” district officials wrote in a news release. “The student who brought the weapon to school has been arrested, and severe school-based and legal consequences will follow. We understand situations like this are terrifying for all of us, and while we don’t want to alarm you, we do want to make sure we’re communicating as transparently as possible.”
More information about the incident has not yet been released. However, Bay County Sheriff Tommy Ford and Superintendent Bill Husfelt plan to hold a news conference about the situation this afternoon.
We will have updates as they become available.
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