SAN ANTONIO — More than a dozen bullets were discovered in two San Antonio school districts within the last two days.
One bullet was found in Schertz-Cibolo-Universal City ISD and at least 13 bullets in Northside ISD.
There were no reports of shootings around these discoveries, but parents are still raising concerns about their child's safety and whether the ammo came from a student or an adult.
Just before 11 a.m. Thursday, a Clemens High School student notified a School Resource Officer (SRO) about a bullet in a boy's restroom. East Central ISD says as a precaution, a K9 unit investigated whether there was any traces of gunpowder and no other threats were found.
Schertz Police Chief, Jim Lowery, said before the SRO was told about the bullet, investigators discovered a TikTok video was going viral among students.
"We want to thank the student that reported this incident," Lowery said. "However, we would like to remind everyone to use the proper channels to report a situation that requires immediate attention. There are negative consequences of inaccurate or unexplained video footage that can cause undue community alarm or place the public at risk."
At Jefferson Middle School in NISD, bullets were found two days in a row. Wednesday afternoon was the most startling discovery: A Ziploc bag with 11 rounds of ammunition.
"They were walking between Jefferson and Ward Elementary and they saw a bag of bullets on the floor and they started screaming," said a mother with children at both Jefferson and Ward. The mother reached out to KENS 5 and shared the story with us under condition of anonymity.
As classes let out Wednesday at Jefferson Middle School off Shaenfield Road, she said her daughter snapped a picture of the Ziploc bag while walking home. The students immediately called police.
"She said, 'Mom I'm scared of going to school tomorrow.'"
A spokesman with NISD said the discoveries began yesterday before 8 a.m. when a student found one bullet outside a school door. The Ziploc bag followed in the afternoon. Then, Thursday morning, another bullet was turned in which was also found outside a school door.
NISD's K9 unit searched the campus each time and cameras were also checked.
The handgun ammo was of mixed caliber; some 9mm, some 45 ACP.
After searching, NISD officials found no evidence to indicate who may have placed/dropped the ammo in these locations. In the locations outside the school doors, for example, those are high traffic areas which made it extremely difficult to pinpoint who could have been responsible.
"We live in very scary times right now where we are scared to send our kids to school and we don't know if they're gonna come back home," said the mother. "[The school] didn't send anything and I'm thinking hopefully they have things under control. I'm trusting to send my child that morning. Hearing there were more instances, more things found, it's like, when's the school going to say something?"
In a letter e-mailed to Jefferson parents Thursday afternoon following our interview, Principal Monica Cabico wrote in-part, "...we have not been able to determine how or why the bullets were on our campus grounds. We will continue to monitor this ongoing situation and take all necessary precautions to keep our students and staff safe. We take any concern or report for student safety seriously and NISD Police will follow up appropriately."
In the meantime, the mother is curious if investigators will search for fingerprints on the ammo. She wonders if now is the time extra security measures should be taken.
"Unfortunately, we're getting to a point where, do we need to check backpacks? Do we need to have clear backpacks in the middle school now?" she said. "They definitely need to be looking through the bullets and seeing if there's fingerprints...Maybe an adult handled those things. You might not be able to find the fingerprints for a young person, but you might be able to find an adult who handed that to the young person."
In her e-mail, Principal Cabico sent a reminder to all families about the importance of reporting any potential threat. She included NISD's Safeline, 210-397-SAFE (7233), where families can make a report.
If a student is caught bringing weapons to school, that's grounds for expulsion.