Parents: Be on the lookout for toy guns, local officials say.
A school bus in Hopkinton had to evacuate Wednesday morning when the driver recognized a student had a toy that resembled a “real weapon,” district officials said in a letter to parents.
Police, along with middle and high school administrators, responded to the scene, and students in the back of the bus were “patted down and the contents of their bags were also searched by HPD officers.”
Police confiscated the toy gun, officials said. They did not disclose the product’s brand and make, and the investigation remained ongoing Wednesday afternoon.
Hopkinton is not the only municipality across the region that has seen recent instances of children possessing and using toy guns.
Canton Police Chief Helena Rafferty issued a stern notice to her community Monday, saying gel ball blasters, often referred to as ‘Orbeez guns,’ are prohibited on all town property and businesses, particularly at the library and on fields, school property and school buses.
“The most important information you need to know about this item is that it CAN BE EASILY MISTAKEN FOR AN ACTUAL FIREARM,” Rafferty wrote. “Obviously, in the contemporary times we live in, this dangerous fact could cause an immense amount of confusion and panic throughout our town.”
The ban came after Canton, a suburb about 15 miles south of Boston, dealt with “an increase in incidents around town” over the past few weeks, and police connected the use of Orbeez guns with “several social media challenges.”
The viral ‘Orbeez Challenge’ trend on TikTok, which came to the forefront across the country last spring, has people sharing videos of them shooting others with gel balls.
Three children faced criminal charges in Auburn earlier this year after allegedly shooting gel balls – small, squishy pellets that can cause injuries when used as projectiles – at a group of middle school students headed home from school, MassLive reported.
In Canton, “Some youths on social media have taken the competition a step further and started freezing the gel balls, thus making them very dangerous projectiles,” Rafferty wrote.