AG: There is 'no coherent strategy' for responding to students who bring guns to school

Just days after the suspected accidental fatal shooting of one of two Atrisco Heritage High School students in a school parking lot, two other teens were criminally charged with bringing their guns to school at other Albuquerque campuses.

Gun possession at school and gun violence among juveniles in 2023 has been “gut-wrenching,” said Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman.

It’s illegal for a person under 19 to be in possession of a handgun in New Mexico, although there’s no minimum age to possess rifles and shotguns.

And being caught with a gun at school could lead to explusion for a year, but top prosecutors in New Mexico say not enough is being done after the firearms are discovered to reduce the public safety threat.

Bregman said his office, as part of prosecuting such juvenile crimes, is now trying to find out where the juveniles facing charges are getting their guns.

“With social media, most every other day you can find a gun available somewhere in Albuquerque,” Bregman said last week.

Earlier this month, New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez sent a letter to the governor and legislative leaders that focused in part on juveniles with guns.

Based on discussions about public safety with law enforcement officers, prosecutors and treatment providers, Torrez said the state’s juvenile justice system needs to be more proactive.

“Law enforcement leaders noted they are finding younger individuals possessing guns and perpetrating gun crimes. However, the interventions available are not matched to this challenge,” Torrez wrote in the Dec. 11 letter.

He stated that there is “no coherent strategy for responding to a young person who brings a gun to school,” adding “it is unclear whether a social worker is dispatched to the home to provide support or whether a counselor is assigned to the young person to understand why the young person feels the need to have a firearm.”

“Currently, there is no consistent enforcement or service response for a minor with a gun,” wrote Torrez, who previously served as Bernalillo County District Attorney.

This “demonstrates to our young people that there are no consequences for bringing a gun to school,” Torrez wrote.

“We must respond with both an immediate consequence and services to try to change the course of that young person’s trajectory. The lives of our young people are literally at stake.”

Torrez’s letter came just days after the Dec. 8 fatal shooting of 16-year-old Elijah Pohl-Morfin after a basketball game at Atrisco Heritage Academy High School. He and his friend, Adrian Martinez, who is now facing charges in Children’s Court, were playing with a gun in the high school parking lot at the time, according to the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Department.

Five days later, on Dec. 13, Albuquerque Public Schools said a gun was found in a student’s backpack at Cibola High School. That same day, a 17-year-old was accused of bringing a loaded gun to Gilbert Sena Charter School.

Including at least one incident at a charter school, 11 people are being prosecuted for bringing guns to school campuses, 2nd Judicial District Attorney’s Office spokeswoman Nancy Laflin wrote in an email on Thursday.

Nine of those were juveniles, and five students were in custody as of then, she added.

Albuquerque Public Schools Superintendent Scott Elder said his district, the largest in the state, does not send social workers or other services to students’ homes when they’re caught with a gun at school.

In part, he said that’s because the district doesn’t have social workers to do that type of work — most are assigned to work on school campuses, often with students that have special needs.

If a student already has a social worker assigned to them, though, that social worker would likely follow up with them, Elder said.

But there are other complications to providing students the additional help they need. APS policy states that when a student is caught with a gun at school or during a school-related event, they must be expelled for at least one year.

“When you expel a child from the school, you’re not just expelling them from the school, they’re expelled from the district,” Elder said. “So there’s not a lot we can do as a district at that point, and so you are reliant on social services that are in the area.”

Those outside services, though, have their own set of challenges.

Youth Development Inc., for example, has a program called “ABQ Against Violence” that provides therapeutic, tutoring and other services for juveniles involved in any type of violent crime, including students caught with guns on school campuses.

With the current iteration of the program kicking off in March, YDI is currently working with 10 juveniles and young adults, five of whom have “been in possession of a gun,” according to Concha Cordova, vice president of the company’s Education, Employment and Training Division.

Two of those five, Cordova said, were students who’d brought a gun to school.

Although it’s just in its infancy, the program has proven to be a difficult one to expand or get people to follow through on, she said. On top of funding challenges, Cordova said there are also many juveniles and families who are reluctant to accept help.

“It’s not a mandated program … they get referred to the program, but they have to be willing to go through it. And that’s the tough part,” she said. “If they’re getting referred to us because they are suspected of carrying … We get the reaction from the individual saying, ‘No, I’m not, no I’m not. Do you have proof?’ ”

There are also breakdowns in family support, Cordova said. Sometimes, parents work several jobs to make ends meet, and can’t get their children to the YDI program. Other times, like their children, parents deny that their family could be involved in any sort of violent or gun-related crimes.

“When I talk about generational violence, there’s also that fear and that denial of, ‘No, that’s not us; That’s not my family,” Cordova said.

Jessica Preston, a spokeswoman for the state Children, Youth and Families Department, said once a minor is charged in Children’s Court with possessing a gun, programs are offered “based entirely on the recommendation of the judge” in the case.

Juvenile probation officers, who worked for CYFD’s juvenile justice division, “work within their area to secure these services.”

“We must respond with both an immediate consequence and services to try to change the course of that young person’s trajectory. The lives of our young people are literally at stake.”