Coleytown El Student Brings Deactivated Grenade to School

Janna Bell: no threat or danger to the school. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com
UPDATE The principal of Westport’s Coleytown Elementary School told parents a student brought a deactivated hand grenade to school today that caused the building to be evacuated.

Principal Janna Bell said at no point was there “a threat or danger to the school.”

Police and fire services confirmed there was a call to the school at 3:53 p.m.—well after classes were dismissed—but did not provide details. The school superintendent, Elliott Landon, could not immediately be reached.

“Today a child brought in an instrument that looked like a hand grenade,” Bell said in an e-mail message to Coleytown parents at 5 p.m.

“Upon learning of this information, I immediately evacuated the building and followed our emergency procedures. All students and staff are safe. 

“We worked collaboratively with the Westport Police Department to determine the object was a grenade that had all of its explosive elements removed and at no point was it a threat or danger to the school. The building has since reopened.

“The Westport Public School system takes very seriously the obligation to keep children safe. We are grateful for the rapid response of the Westport Emergency Services in assisting us with this matter.”

In postings on Facebook and Twitter, several parents expressed concern about the incident. One said she had been told by someone at the police department that an 8-year-old was involved.

“He said it was an 8-year-old boy who brought it in and was overheard by a teacher bragging about having a grenade to his friends,” wrote Bari Alyse Rudin on Facebook.

“His mother was called and PD claim to have no concerns that there are other weapons in the household.”

She added: “We parents clearly need to also request or organize weapon desensitizing groups with the kids if a second or third grader (based on 8 yo) thinks that’s cool and appropriate at school.”

In a letter to school authorities, a copy of which was made available to WestportNow, Rudin said: “While I’m mildly relieved to hear that ‘the explosive devices were no longer intact’ today, my husband, friends, and I are not fully relieved that our children are not in future danger.

“The mass email does not explain steps taken by the school system or the authorities to investigate the family and home of the child who had access to and brought in a hand grenade, truly unfathomable to us to even have to be writing or discussing this.

“We feel you need to give us more information regarding what was done and is being done to insure that this child and family will not have any possibility of bringing any of their other weapons to school, loaded or unloaded.

“If there are not further steps being taken beyond today, there needs to be. A band-aid on today’s incident is not sufficient.”

Four years ago, a resident brought a decades-old live hand grenade to a Westport hazardous waste collection day. State police later identified it as a World War I relic.

A state police emergency services bomb squad unit took the grenade, described as a white or yellow phosphorus incendiary device, to a deserted area of the yard waste facility behind the Westport Weston Health District and exploded it. (See WestportNow Oct. 14, 2006)