Local

Parents upset after students find knife on school playground

PITTSBURGH — A scare at a local elementary school has some parents upset that they weren’t made aware of what happened.

Authorities said a student found a paring knife on the playground of Concord Elementary School on Brownsville Road, reportedly left there by another student.

The district confirmed to Channel 11 News that third-grade students were on the playground when classmates found the knife and gave it to a teacher.

The school investigated and learned a male student brought it to school and left it on the playground.

District spokesperson Ebony Pugh said the boy has been disciplined.

“It was a contained incident and we notified parents whose children were in the area where the knife was. No student was harmed or threatened,” Pugh said.

But some parents think they should have been made aware of the incident.

“School is supposed to be a place where your child is safe. I don’t want to send my kids to school not knowing what’s going to happen,” one concerned parent said.

“It’s not right. The whole school should have been notified,” another parent said.

Most parents Channel 11 News talked with Wednesday agree.

“It can still affect the whole school, so we should have been notified. I’m pretty upset I wasn’t notified,” a parent said.

The district told Channel 11's Jodine Costanzo that it will listen to the parents' concerns and evaluate which parents are notified in the future.