Amy Tatom, right, speaks at the Bend-La Pine School Board meeting Tuesday night.

We would like you to read about a minute of what was said at the Bend-La Pine School Board work session Tuesday night.

Board members and staff didn’t have an in-depth discussion about the incident Monday about a seventh grader who brought a loaded handgun to Pilot Butte Middle School. The meeting was about other topics. It felt, to us, like the incident was squatting on everyone’s mind.

A few school board members brought it up in the last few minutes of the meeting.

This is what board member Amy Tatom said:

“I just want to say to the community who might be listening: As a parent it is your job to make sure your students in our schools are safe. And if a student brings a gun to school, it is because, as a parent, you are not keeping your student safe and you are not keeping our community safe. That’s a really hard thing to say out loud, but as an adult you have to make sure your gun is secured and your student does not have access to it. And I hope for any parents out there who are worried about security in our schools that you are having these conversations with your neighbors, that you are having these conversations with your friends, you are making sure before a student goes to someone else’s house you are asking if they have guns and if they are secured. I look forward to more messaging from the district to reinforce this in our community, because clearly we need to continue to reinforce this.”