Officials with Clovis Unified School District are reviewing their internal policy around peace officers who are carrying a firearm while attending sporting events after a loose handgun was left behind in a football stadium bathroom, a spokesperson confirmed.
The district generally allows a peace officer to bring a concealed weapon into sporting events if they’ve been cleared at the gate by the Clovis Unified police on duty, according to Kelly Avants, the district’s spokesperson.
She said Monday the district is reviewing the policy.
“Our current practice related to current law enforcement officers (which we are reviewing) reflects a standard practice between law enforcement agencies that allows a currently active law enforcement officer to show their credentials to an officer with our police department and be approved to keep possession of their service weapon,” she said in an email.
The review of the policy follows an incident Friday when local students walked into a restroom at Veterans Memorial Stadium in Clovis and found a handgun in a holster on top of a toilet paper holder, police with the school district have said. Fans were at the stadium to see Buchanan High and Golden West High, a Visalia school.
The state Department of Justice confirmed Monday the officer who left his gun in the men’s restroom was one of their special agents, saying officials expect the “highest standard” and were “committed to accountability and transparency” in reviewing the incident and potentially disciplining the agent, whom they did not name. The agent was off duty at the time.
Fresno Unified School District does not necessarily allow off-duty officers to carry a concealed weapon into a sporting event, according to a statement from David Ray, executive director for the district’s safety office.
“Simply presenting law-enforcement credentials does not, by itself, mean an individual bypasses the district’s established event security procedures,” Ray said in the statement. “An off-duty officer attending a Fresno Unified event as a spectator is subject to the district’s event security procedures and would not be permitted to carry a firearm into the event unless they are acting in an official law enforcement capacity.”
Both Clovis and Fresno school districts said they do not allow a civilian with a concealed carry weapons permit, often called a CCW, to bring guns into a sporting event past the screening efforts at the gate.
Central Unified spokesperson Johnathon Burrows did not respond to multiple requests for comment on that Fresno school district’s policies.
Headlines about similar incidents show officers are commonly fined and sometimes suspended while civilians that made the news were arrested.
The former San Luis Obispo police chief left her gun in an El Pollo Loco bathroom in 2019, according to a report from The Tribune. She was given a $1,600 fine, or the equivalent of two days of suspension, and was also required to take safety training.
An officer in Toronto left a firearm and other equipment in a bathroom in a mall changing room in an incident that ended with discipline in June, according to a report from CityNews. That officer was suspended for 15 days.
A civilian in the Atlanta area was arrested in December after he left a handgun in a school bathroom during an evening performance at the school, FOX5 Atlanta reported. Police said he was arrested on suspicion of possessing a weapon on school property and reckless conduct.
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Reporter Thaddeus Miller has covered cities in the central San Joaquin Valley since 2010, writing about everything from breaking news to government and police accountability. A native of Fresno, he joined The Fresno Bee in 2019 after time in Merced and Los Banos.