A weapon was found during a search of a student’s backpack at Nathan Hale School in West Allis on Wednesday, and West Allis police took the student into custody, according to a letter Principal Matt Lesar sent to families. The search followed staff noticing the smell of marijuana coming from the backpack, WISN 12 News reported, citing the letter.
Lesar wrote that the incident posed no direct threat to students or staff. The letter did not identify the weapon, say where it was found, or provide details about the student’s arrest. WISN reported that the West Allis Police Department had not responded to its inquiry.
District policy sets a standard, not a finding about this search
The West Allis-West Milwaukee School District’s published policy says a student search requires reasonable suspicion and must be reasonable in scope and manner. That policy provides context for how searches are governed, but does not establish what information prompted this search or whether the search met the policy’s standard.
State data categories do not identify the weapon in this case
The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction groups handguns, shotguns or rifles, other firearms, and dangerous weapons that are not firearms together in its weapon-related discipline data. Those categories cannot clarify what was found at Nathan Hale. DPI also says its public discipline data cover only incidents resulting in disciplinary removals, so they are not a count of every school safety incident.
A separate Wisconsin case offers a limited comparison
In a separate incident in Monona, Channel 3000 reported that Monona Police said a gun was found on a student at Monona Grove High School on Thursday, May 21. That case shares the broad circumstance of a weapon being found at school, but the report identified the item as a gun; the Nathan Hale letter did not specify a weapon type. The separate incident does not establish a pattern or explain what happened in West Allis.
