Gresham High School students and parents are raising safety concerns after a shooting incident

Gresham High School students, parents and teachers are bringing their safety concerns to the school board after a series of gun incidents at the school.

The most recent incident occurred on September 20, when a student was arrested for bringing a loaded gun to school.

“Every day I ask myself: Will someone do something again? And I'm kind of nervous. It's nerve-wracking. I don’t feel safe,” said Benny Enriquez, a Gresham High School student.

“We feel like we're not being protected well enough or the staff aren't trying hard enough and that has to change because otherwise one of us, someone of us, is going to end up dead one day.”

Enriquez plans to participate in a student walkout Thursday and is calling on the district to improve its response to security threats, especially after the Sept. 20 incident.

“None of us knew anything and I didn’t even know until I got home and my mom told me. That kind of scared me because the school apparently knew about it since the morning and basically didn't do anything until after lunch.”

Parent Jake Fray and his son Landon tell a similar story.

“I finally texted Landon and Landon said, 'Wait, what's going on?' So Landon didn't even know there was a gun at school and you said the teachers didn't know, is that true?” “Yeah,” Landon said.

The Gresham Teachers Union claims this incident is the result of a series of incidents involving weapons at the school. It also claims the district has ignored concerns about student and staff safety for years.

In May, 97% of teachers and staff voted no confidence in the principal and district administration.

When asked if he felt the administration cared about the safety of students and staff, Fray replied, “I don't.”

Fray is a graduate of Barlow High School. He is also a leader in the Gresham-Barlow youth sports program. He says Barlow doesn't appear to have the same safety issues as Gresham, and he believes that's indicative of leadership.

“We're supposed to be equal, and things don't really feel the same at both schools, and I think we need some accountability at the leadership level at Gresham to make sure we're at that same level,” he said.

District administrators declined an interview, but a district spokesperson issued the following statement:

The Gresham-Barlow School District would like to thank building management and campus security guards who worked to quickly identify the armed student and move him to a safe location. Thanks to their courage and commitment, we were able to avert a tragedy.

We want the community to know that after any safety incident at a school, we meet with the school administration and other key building staff who are part of our emergency response team to discuss what happened and how the team responded. We also consider the contributions of students, staff and families. We are always looking for ways to improve our processes and procedures.

School safety is everyone’s responsibility. We must continue to work together so that our students can learn, grow and thrive in our schools.

The school board meeting is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m