In the Same Week at Reno HS:
1) Armed Potential Shooter on Campus … and WCSD Lies to Parents.
2) Next Day: Students Break-in and Do Major Vandalism.
Reno HS Principal Has to Cancel Senior Assembly
WCSD Response: “No comment” ??
And these are ONLY the incidents we’re hearing about …
In case you missed it, most local media reported the following potentially deadly situation at Reno High School that occurred May 20, 2025.
Description of the Incident
• A little after 7 a.m. on May 20, WCSD school police at Reno High School responded to a call regarding a Winnemucca man sleeping in his car in the Reno High School parking lot.
• A rifle was visible in the man’s backseat, along with a handgun that was sitting on the front passenger seat, and four knives. According to another media report, there were “several guns” in the vehicle. One of the six criminal charges the man is facing is “possession of a weapon with the intention to sell or transport it without a serial number.”
https://www.rgj.com/story/news/crime/2025/05/21/reno-high-man-arrested-guns/83772555007/
Guns with no serial numbers, known as “ghost guns” are typically desired by criminals who don’t want a gun that can be traced and/or want to avoid background checks. Possession and/or attempted sale of a “ghost gun” can be a felony in Nevada, resulting in 1-to-4 years in prison and a $5,000 fine.
https://law.justia.com/codes/nevada/chapter-202/statute-202-364/
• The school police arrested the man, who spent that night in jail but was released – without bail – the next day, free to roam the city (or return to the school?) until his arraignment 14 days later on June 4.
How WCSD Handled the Incident
The same day as the incident, media reported that the Reno High School Principal sent out the following message to all its families.
“We called School Police today after a person was seen on our campus who had not checked in at the office. No students were involved, and School Police took him into custody as students and teachers arrived to begin the school day.”
In just these 2 simple sentences, the principal’s message provided the parents of 60,000 WCSD students all the justification they need to immediately withdraw their children from District schools.
The principal’s communication to parents was a masterful job of evading and lying by omission. The email purposely misled parents and the community about what a dangerous, lethal situation this could have become.
• “A ‘person’ was seen on our campus…”?
No! It was a man with at least SIX weapons, including 2 guns, who was found sitting in the Reno HS school parking lot – shooting distance from the school building.
• “(He) had not checked into our office …” Of course he didn’t “check into the school office! “What would the principal have expected the man to say in answer to the question: “Purpose of your visit?”
“Oh, I just wanted to watch 1800 students and staff members walking around campus, so I could figure out a way to “interact” with them and my 6 weapons.”
• “No students were involved …“ “Involved” in WHAT? The memo to parents implied that it was ONLY a man sitting in his car in the parking lot. If that’s true, why would possible “student involvement” have been an issue?
• “School police took (the man) into custody …” For WHAT? Is it WCSD policy to have their school cops arrest EVERY person who’s just sitting “harmlessly” in a car in the parking lot minding their own business? The police took the man into custody because he was breaking an armload of state laws and was a lethal disaster just waiting to happen … but the Principal’s message to parents didn’t mention that detail.
There was also no mention that the Principal sent any follow-up communications to parents stating that this same man was RELEASED from custody the next day – without bail – and is free to wander ANY of WCSD’s 118 school campuses for 2 more WEEKS until he’s arraigned?
• The biggest lie in the Principal’s memo was implying that the “non-incident” (according to the principal’s description) was handled BEFORE “students and teachers arrived to “begin the school day.”
Media reports said the man in question was confronted by school police after 7:00 a.m.
First Period at Reno HS begins at 7:40 a.m., so based on the principal’s memo, a parent would have assumed that the man was arrested BEFORE anyone arrived on campus.
But that would NOT be true.
Like many WCSD high schools, Reno has a daily, extra credit class called a “Zero Period” that begins at 6:45 a.m. That means that on the morning of the incident, Zero Period staff and students WOULD have been filing into school within shooting distance of the man’s vehicle for anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour – or more – BEFORE the school police showed up and arrested him.”
Dealing With This One Incident
• If the Reno HS Principal was truly the author of that false and dangerously misleading message to parents, he should be demoted immediately.
• But there’s a much-more-likely possibility of how the memo came to be written. Some combination of the District’s lying, cover-up specialists very possibly drafted the memo and told the Principal to send it out under his name.
If THIS is what happened, then for the sake of his personal integrity and professional credibility, the Reno Principal should publicly expose that fact. If that is what happened, then the community should demand that heads-roll, regarding the Central Administrators responsible for that dangerous deception.
Dealing With the Bigger Picture
But what should be done about the WCSD School District leadership and School Board, that over the past many years has continued to cover-up and lie about many incidents more serious than this one?
(Breaking news:) Last Night: ANOTHER major incident happened in WCSD – ALSO at Reno HS.
If We Don’t Learn from History – We are Doomed to Repeat it.
If you read the history of the hundreds of school shootings during the 26 years since Columbine, one common factor stands out.
Prior to the mass shootings, the administration and teachers of EVERY school that experienced large-scale and tragic loss of life, received – and IGNORED abundant evidence that dangerous student behavior was not being called into account, but rather was being allowed to continue and increase. But the school leaders and teachers ignored the evidence and did nothing.
That was true in Columbine, Colorado.
It was true in Parkland, Florida
It was true on 418 other campuses that have been destroyed by major gun violence since 1999.
And it’s true in 2025 in Washoe County School District.
Education Crusade has been reporting about this situation for years.
WCSD’s leadership, School Board members, and most of their teachers at all levels, have sold their souls and kept silent about this epidemic of District-wide dysfunction in order to keep their jobs. We haven’t even BEGUN to see the total breakdown that will occur in our schools if this doesn’t change.
(see the most recent Nevada Globe op/ed about the current situation)
Washoe County public schools are doing a great job of maintaining the employment of over 7,000 adults.
They are doing almost NOTHING to provide our children a quality education and keep them safe.
Parents – Now is the time to take your stand.
: You know that the majority of WCSD’s students are functionally illiterate based on every possible test – but still you keep your children in that system because it’s easy and convenient.
Now – the situation in our schools is MUCH more than just academic failure. The most serious problem with WCSD schools is that they are physically dangerous and morally bankrupt.
The school year is ending.
It’s the perfect time to explore numerous better – and safer options for educating your children. Contact educationcrusade.org if you want help in finding a situation that works for your family.
The time to act is now.
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