When I was a kid, the little town I grew up in southern Chester County had all of about 3,000 residents.
Every day, 3,650 kids walk into Upper Darby High School. And they speak more than 70 languages.
It's a bit like a small city all its own.
Upper Darby High was in the news again yesterday.
But I was heartened at a couple of things that we learned during a morning press conference called by the school, security and township police to announce that two students had been charged in an incident in which one of the juveniles was nabbed on school grounds with a loaded 9mm handgun.
First and foremost, there were no serious injuries and no specific threat had been made against the school or any students. This was not any kind of potential rampage situation. Not a single shot was fired. There was a brief scuffle between the student and one officer, who suffered a cut on his head.
Second, school administrators learned of the situation from a tip that came from a student.
And that leads to the final point. Chitwood went to great pains to note that the vast majority of those 3,650 students are great kids. Are there a few bad ones? Sure. That makes them pretty much the same as everyone else.
Kudos to all involved for handling a bad situation about as well as you can.
And a special salute to the student who had the awareness - and the guts - to alert school officials that a fellow student was going to try to bring a loaded gun into the school.
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