Local student finds spent bullet casing at bus stop, turns it in to school admins
A local student found a spent bullet casing while waiting for their bus to school. The student picked up the casing and turned it in to administrators when they got to the school, officials confirmed.
The incident happened Monday at Desert Mirage High School in Thermal, Lissette Santiago, a spokesperson for the Coachella Valley Unified School District, confirmed.
School officials notified the Riverside County Sheriff's Department. The investigation confirmed where the student located the single spent shell casing.
A concerned parent reached out to News Channel 3 Monday evening to notify us of the situation. The parent expressed their frustration that they were notified by the school or the Coachella Valley Unified School District. They said they were told by their children after getting out of classes.
We've reached out to CVUSD for additional information on this incident, including whether parents were properly notified. Stay with News Channel 3 for any updates.
Desert Mirage High School is connected to two other CVUSD schools, Toro Canyon Middle School and Las Palmitas Middle School. The trio of schools has had a number of incidents involving students bringing in guns and bullets in the past. The most recent incident was just last week, when a student turned in a magazine of bullets, forcing a brief lockdown at all three schools.
In addition, there was an incident where school staff discovered a handgun loaded with bullets in a student's backpack at Coachella Valley High School.
News Channel 3's Jake Ingrassia is taking an in-depth look at that incident, pressing CVUSD on the response and protocol.
