Oakland parents: guns and violence in schools unacceptable

OAKLAND, Calif. -
Police confirmed that a gun was found on the campus of a high school Friday morning in Oakland. They say fortunately, it did not escalate to violence.

Oakland Unified School District and the school itself did not release details, other than the incident happened at Dewey Academy. 

It's the latest in a series of gun related incidents at Oakland Schools in the past few months.

SEE ALSO: Oakland school shooting injures 6

Parents said unfortunately, they were not surprised but that it added to their concerns for their children's safety.  They wanted more counselors on campuses to help students cope with problems.

A student told KTVU a loaded gun was found in the backpack of another student. Officers recovered a gun but did not release details.

A source told KTVU no one was arrested and no one was injured.  Still, parents said the discovery is disturbing and that it may be a sign of fear among students.

"Obviously, they're dealing with something. People are scared, bringing guns.  People are scared of being shot, targeted," parent Tut Kingdomx  said. He has two children who attend other public schools in Oakland.

He said it's concerning, coming on the heels of other gun-related incidents at schools.

On September 28, six people were shot and injured at King Estates School Complex, and on August 29, a 12-year-old shot a 13-year-old at Madison Park Academy.

SEE ALSO: 13-year-old shot at Oakland's Madison Park Academy; 12-year-old suspect in custody

"It's heartbreaking first of all and it's an outrage," said Steve Peterson, a parent and head coach of Oakland Dynamites 10U Youth Football.

He experienced gun violence first hand. On July 31, his team was playing on the football field of Oakland Tech High School  when a shooting injured 3 people.

"This city has always had a spirit of violence over it. But when they're shooting up schools, they're bringing guns to schools, they're shooting up football games, they've crossed the line," said Peterson.

"We expect you to do what the coaches tell you to do," said Peterson.

On Friday nights, he prepares 10 and 11-year old boys for their weekend football games and more. He said it's a way to keep kids off the streets, a crucial step in violence prevention.

"We use the game of football to teach these boys discipline, honor and respect.  We think if we can teach that within our community, we can lessen what's going on out there," Peterson said the gun recovered at Dewey academy is a symptom of what's wrong.

"That's a problem.  We can't normalize that and be desensitized to what's going on," Peterson said it's important to teach kids early. 

Amber Lee is a reporter with KTVU. Email Amber at Amber.Lee@Fox.com or text/leave message at 510-599-3922. Follow her on Facebook @AmberKTVU,  Instagram @AmberKTVU  or Twitter @AmberKTVU