Victoria Perkins
GREENFIELD — The video is alarming. It shows a former Greenfield-Central High School student wearing a heavy hoodie, walking through the halls of G-CHS saying things like “my only purpose here is to show how Greenfield-Schools can fall easily to a school shooting,” she said, “They don’t want to meet with me, so I’ll meet with them… I want to show you how easy it is to break into this school.”
Officials with the Greenfield-Central Community School Corporation were faced with two separate safety incidents in their school district last week — one involving a former student sneaking into the high school and another involving a middle school student bringing a BB-pellet gun to school.
Victoria Perkins, 19, a 2022 G-CHS graduate, entered the high school through the main door before the start of the school day, Wednesday, April 26. She then live-streamed the incident on her Instagram and later shared it to her page. Then on Thursday, April 27, officials with the Greenfield Police Department reported a 6th grade student was charged with bringing a BB-pellet, which looked like a real gun, to school Wednesday.
Officials with the GPD noted criminal charges are being considered against the 6th grade male student, who attends Maxwell Intermediate School. Officials say the 13-year-old boy brought the BB-pellet gun to school and showed off the gun to another student before a teacher was informed. Perkins in the meantime is sitting in the county jail for an unrelated issue, officials said.
Both incidents prompted parents to take to social media, concerned about school safety measures and communication procedures district officials use in informing adults about these types of situations.
Superintendent Harold Olin noted he was pleased with the way G-C Intermediate School officials handled the situation involving the BB-pellet gun. After it was reported to officials by another student, the student’s bag was immediately searched and the BB-pellet gun was taken.
Still, Olin noted the district could have done a better job communicating both situations to parents.
“We feel like in both instances we probably could have done a better job in sharing some things and we regret that,” Olin said. “Both instances happened within the span of about 30 minutes and were both being investigated and sometimes there are things we just can’t share right away.”
Olin noted he was at G-CHS for a ceremony on the morning Perkins came in and said adults had eyes on the doors, so they are not sure how Perkins got in without being seen. Her video shows Perkins walking through the high school with a hood over her head, popping in and out of the restroom saying things like “kids could die today,” then blaming school officials for not providing proper safety measures.
“I’d like you to know I’m making no threats, just pointing out facts,” Perkins said in the video.
Officials from the GPD said Perkins was arrested later the same morning after she went into G-CHS on a trespassing charge that is unrelated to being at the school.
“We are still looking into this incident but she has not been charged with any crimes for being at the school,” GPD Deputy Chief Chuck McMichael said.
The video shows Perkins talking to an officer who approached her while in the school and asked her to leave. She told the officer she was only in the building looking for her transcripts. In the more-than-10-minute video, Perkins made several comments degrading the school’s administration and the school’s main resource officer, “This is why you have bomb threats, because I’m in the building. Just kidding I don’t have a bomb at all” and “Your school has no security, and I could’ve shot that school up.”
Prosecutor Brent Eaton noted Perkins is on a 72-hold after being arrested last week, as his office waits for officials from the GPD to finish their investigation. Perkins is slated to make an appearance in Hancock County Superior Court 2 Wednesday, May 3, jail records state.
Greenfield-Central High School principal Jason Cary noted in the Perkins case, school officials do remember her as a student.
“She was definitely not a troublemaker when she was here, so we were very surprised by her behavior last week,” Cary said. “We have been working with GPD to make sure we have all the necessary steps in place to make sure something like this doesn’t happen again. We are reviewing our safety protocols and being reflective of what happened. We know there are things we can learn from this incident to make us better moving forward.”
Cary noted Olin sent information out last week to school parents following the incident, and he sent an update out to all G-CHS parents Monday morning.
“When it comes to school safety, there are some things we can communicate and some things we can’t,” Cary said. “As a parent, I know that can be frustrating. I talked to several parents on Wednesday and Thursday, and they were all respectful and understanding. They know we are doing our best, and they appreciated what I was able to share with them.”
Still, Olin noted administrators could have and should have been more descriptive in their verbiage when relaying the information from both incidents to parents last week.
“We understand how parents feel because we’re parents too,” Olin said. “It was a terrible 30 minutes last week, but we’ll do better in the future.”
Last week’s back-to-back incidents prompted hundreds of parents to engage in social media discussions on school safety.
Facebook user Beth Martin addressed the events in two separate posts. “My child is really about to be home schooled. I’m terrified,” she posted in part on Friday regarding the BB gun incident, before uploading the video Perkins live-streamed while walking through the school Wednesday morning.
“This is not okay,” Martin said in the accompanying post, which racked up more than 330 comments as of Monday afternoon, some of which explored the idea of homeschooling.
Martin also shared the time and location of the next Greenfield-Central school board meeting — 7 p.m. May 8 at 700 N. Broadway St.
Fellow Greenfield-Central parent Odessa Wallace said she plans to attend.
“We need and expect as parents that we should have urgent incidents communicated and shared with us, not to find out about it on social media,” said Wallace, who has four children attending Greenfield-Central schools.
Former Greenfield-Central parent Lora Cole told the Daily Reporter that if Perkins’ recent video taught us anything, it’s that it’s time to beef up security within the school district.
“This was our warning. This was our red flag. The next time somebody could be harmed, because it could have happened this time,” said Cole, who has been homeschooling her daughter since COVID, but was considering letting her return to school next year.
