Drugs, guns, and reports of violence rock Kansas City, Kansas high schools

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Reports shared by educators in Wyandotte County paint a concerning picture.

Kansas City, Kansas Public schools share news of concerning incidents at Wyandotte High School involving guns, drugs and threats of violence.

It all comes after a former employee went public with reports detailing drug use, guns and threats of violence against students. Some of the information that former employee shared was confidential, including names of students.

The district shared news of 10 incidents that have taken place at Wyandotte High School since September.

Those incidents include:

• A student with a gun with an extended magazine was discovered at a soccer game. The report said that student was also carrying fentanyl.
• One student experiencing a “psychedelic experience” at the school, believed to be the effect of drug use
• A student using FaceTime to threaten another with violence
• A student with a gun, who was also found to have shell casing in their car, which was parked in the teacher’s parking lot
• A box of live ammunition found in one student’s possession

“Students are young people. They make decisions. Sometimes, they’re not always the best decisions,” Dr. Anna Stubblefield, KCK Schools superintendent, said.

Stubblefield, who attended high school in the nearby Kansas City Public Schools district, said she often interacts with leaders from other school systems. Those districts experience the same issues, according to Stubblefield, who added that her schools cope with the same issues as the community around it.

“You can hold students accountable, but you can’t say, I’m going to kick them out. When you kick them out, you’re kicking them into the community without any form of support,” Stubblefield said. “When you have a concentration of poverty in an urban district, you deal with different things.”