A Central Visual and Performing Arts High School employee was detained Thursday after a Saint Louis Public Safety officer found a gun in his bag on campus, according to police. No students were present at the time because the fall semester had not yet started, and the situation caused no reported injuries.
The employee, a man whose identity has not been released, was located with the firearm inside CVPA in St. Louis, as reported by FOX 2. A Saint Louis Public Schools spokesperson told KSDK-TV that classes had not yet resumed for the school year, meaning students were not exposed to the discovery. Officials then relocated the employee to the district's downtown main office before contacting the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, which sent officers to seize the weapon.
How the Discovery Unfolded
According to the station's report, a Saint Louis Public Safety officer made the initial find in the employee's bag and detained him on school grounds, handling the situation internally before municipal police were looped in. Police have not disclosed whether criminal charges have been filed or could be filed against the employee, and it remains unclear from available reporting whether that process has moved forward.
The legal stakes hinge on a detail that has not been made public: whether the firearm was loaded. Under Missouri Revised Statutes § 571.030, carrying a firearm onto elementary or secondary school property is a Class A misdemeanor if the gun is unloaded, but the charge escalates to a Class E felony if it is loaded. Separately, Missouri's concealed carry law, RSMo § 571.107, makes clear that holding a valid concealed carry permit does not authorize anyone to bring a firearm into a school building without explicit permission from school officials or the local school board.
A Campus Still Marked by 2022
Any gun discovery at CVPA carries added weight because of what happened there in October 2022, when 19-year-old former student Orlando Harris entered the campus with an AR-15-style rifle and 600 rounds of ammunition. That attack killed teacher Jean Kuczka and 15-year-old student Alexzandria Bell, injured seven others, and ended when Harris was fatally shot by responding officers, per the same account from FOX 2 combined with historical reporting from The Kirkwood Call.
At the time of that 2022 shooting, CVPA already had locked exterior doors, seven onsite security guards, and metal detectors at its main entrance, the outlet noted. A statewide SLU/YouGov poll conducted in February 2023, after the tragedy, found that 56% of Missouri voters were worried about a shooting at their local public schools, with more than 57% backing mandatory metal detectors, security cameras, and police presence on campuses across party lines, according to Saint Louis University.
A District Under Strain
Weapons offenses are not rare in the city; St. Louis recorded 4,386 unlawful use of weapons offenses under RSMo § 571.030 in 2025, per crime figures compiled by Rose Legal Services, making the charge one of the metro area's most common. Thursday's incident also lands just days after the St. Louis Circuit Attorney's Office charged former CVPA teacher Kareem Spann with statutory rape and statutory sodomy tied to alleged abuse of a student between 2004 and 2007, as Hoodline reported.
The gun discovery arrives amid broader turmoil for Saint Louis Public Schools, which received a provisional accreditation downgrade from the Missouri State Board of Education in January and faces a $41 million budget deficit that is driving plans to close as many as 22 schools, as detailed in earlier Hoodline reporting. That mix of financial and operational strain forms the backdrop against which district security staff intercepted Thursday's incident before students were ever at risk.
