RAYTOWN, Mo. – A young girl’s family said she received quite the fright on Wednesday while riding the bus. They said their six-year-old daughter got off the school bus crying hysterically, saying that a fourth grade boy had pointed a gun at her face and told her to shut up.
“I never like, ever, ever been around a gun before he showed up close to my eye, like right up to my eye,” Za’hre Counce said.
Bus surveillance video shows the bus driver asking the boy to lift his shirt and checking his backpack, but finding nothing, so she finished her route. It was the parents who had to notify the district. Upon further investigation the district found the boy had a cigarette letter shaped like a gun.
“Every kid on that bus should’ve left their backpacks on the bus. The kids should’ve been off the bus, the police should’ve been able to search the bus. There should’ve been steps taken, ” Rae Counce, Za’hre’s father, said.
A district spokeswoman said the bus driver handled things right, but Counce said if that’s true, the bus driver would’ve found the gun-shaped lighter, stopped the bus and alerted authorities. On Thursday night the district sent home a letter to parents of Norfleet Elementary parents, reminding them of the district’s policy banning all weapons, even toy weapons.
