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Gillian J. Jeffords of Warwick who was also indicted on three counts of endangering the welfare of a child, was employed as a teacher's aide at the Rockland BOCES Jesse Kapan School in West Nyack, came to work on March 29, with a fully loaded gun in her purse, according to the Rockland County District Attorney's Office.
According to the DA's Office, Jeffords placed her pocketbook on a bin in a classroom closet. Not long after, a fellow Kaplan employee accidentally knocked over the defendants’ pocketbook and observed a pistol.
Administrators at Rockland BOCES placed the campus into lockdown, with the Clarkstown Police Department School Resource Officer responding to the scene.
Upon examining the pocketbook, a loaded 9mm pistol was recovered, as well as four loaded magazines containing 28 rounds of ammunition, 14 of which were hollow point rounds the DA's Office said.
The closet in which Jeffords allegedly left the pistol was accessed by the students on a daily basis. The bin upon which she placed her pocketbook was used to store student bathing suits. Three students were in the classroom at the time she placed the purse in the closet, they added.
Jeffords was subsequently fired by the school.
She is scheduled to be arraigned on the charges on Sept. 25. If convicted, Jeffords faces a maximum of four years in state prison.
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