Police were called to Eliot-Hine Middle School at 1830 Constitution Ave. NE on May 27 after school security discovered a student entering the building carrying two knives.
The Situation
The weapons were not concealed. School security personnel spotted them as the student entered the school. Most middle and high schools in the District use both a metal detector and an X-ray machine as part of security. The weapons were flagged by security prior to that screening.
Administrators initiated a lockdown while staff contacted the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD), which responded and assisted in de-escalating the situation.
No injuries were reported and MPD said no arrest was made. In fact, aside from the fact that students were not permitted to leave the room or be near windows, many were unaware of the details.
The System Worked
“The system worked,” said one Eliot-Hine parent who requested anonymity because their employer discourages speaking with the media. “I think they do a good job with security. It’s not easy.”
The family’s eighth-grader noted that the incident was not completely out of the ordinary, but said that security always manages to contact MPD and handle the situation quickly.
The lockdown is intended to keep students from harm, both physical and visual, protecting students from seeing weapons in their school. It also prevents a student that might be caught in a bad decision from being seen and judged by peers.
“At DC Public Schools (DCPS), the safety and well-being of our students is paramount. When incidents happen at school that are or could become threatening, we want parents and families to be reassured that multi-step security measures are in place to prevent harm,” said a spokesperson. “Those protocols worked yesterday at Eliot-Hine Middle School.”
Principal Marlene Magrino wrote in a letter to families that the administration contacted the student’s family to provide support and to move forward with disciplinary procedure as outline in DC Municipal Regulations (DCMR).
Under those regulations, the “use, threatened use, or transfer of any weapon” is classified as a Tier V offense, the most serious category of student misconduct. Depending on the circumstances, consequences can include a long-term suspension or expulsion.
How Common Are Weapons In The School?
The incident also raises a larger question for families: how often are weapons found in District schools?
The answer is surprisingly difficult to determine.
Public records show Eliot-Hine is far from the only District school to experience a weapons-related incident. In 2023 responses to DC Council performance oversight questions, MPD reported recovering 77 knives, 15 tasers, five firearms, five containers of pepper spray and one set of brass knuckles at DC public and public charter schools during the 2021-22 school year. Through Dec. 31, 2022, officers had already recovered another 27 knives and eight firearms. MPD noted that not all recoveries involved criminal offenses and that some weapons were recovered from adults rather than students.
The same oversight responses reported 1,079 calls for service at DC public and public charter schools during the 2021-22 school year, making weapons recovery a small fraction of the reason for calls.
But parents have little way to determine how often weapons-related incidents occur at individual schools. While MPD can compile information on weapons recoveries, calls for service and school-based police activity in response to oversight from DC Council. That data is not routinely published in a form that allows residents to understand broader trends.
The issue has surfaced before. In 2021, the DC Police Reform Commission recommended expanded public reporting on law-enforcement interactions with students. Four years later, a 2025 Office of the Inspector General report found District agencies still lacked standardized definitions and consistent methods for tracking school gun violence.
Parental Concerns
The incident circulated among Capitol Hill parents, including many whose children do not yet attend the school.
“What is this?” one neighborhood parent of a rising Eliot Hine student recalled thinking after seeing discussion of the incident on social media.
For current Eliot-Hine families, however, assessment of the event is centered a different question. It’s not so much about what happened, but rather whether the response kept students safe.
For families at Eliot-Hine, the immediate outcome was clear. Security staff observed the weapons, school administrators initiated a lockdown, police responded and no one was injured.
For those with students that in the next academic year will pass through daily security screening on their way to classes for the first time, it is a new normal.
But it is a system that works, DCPS said. “We recognize that transitioning from elementary to secondary grades where students routinely experience weapons abatement can be unfamiliar, but that process is in place to keep students and staff safe,” DCPS said.
And on May 27, it did.
