A young man has been arrested for registering as an eighth grader at Hollis Innovation Academy and gaining access to the building on Tuesday, according to officials with Atlanta Public Schools.
The district is not releasing the young man’s name or his age but says he was arrested and charged with possessing a weapon within a school zone, trespassing, and giving false information to an officer.
APS says the man was carrying a small knife and some bullets, so out of “an abundance of caution,” school leaders contacted the district’s police force, who dispatched K-9s to search Hollis for weapons. They found none, APS says.
School officials said the young man, who was last enrolled in APS during the 2018-19 school year, is unhoused and was looking for help.
Hollis serves students in grades K-8. APS says the man came to the school late and underwent the procedure for tardy students. He gave the school a false name and said his mother registered him as an eighth grader. While school officials checked the roster, the man was taken to an eighth grade homeroom, according to the district. The young man left the homeroom and went to the gym where school staff met him and realized he was not a student, the district says.
APS says the man was escorted to the school’s office where he was searched by resource officers. APS says the young man did not interact with students. Officials say the district’s office of student services, which provides help for unhoused students and other outreach, is working with the man to see how they can help him.
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