ST. LOUIS (AP) — No one will face charges after two elementary school children brought weapons to their schools in separate incidents, St. Louis police said.
Adults quickly confiscated the guns and no one was injured in either incident.
On Friday, a second grader at Pamoja Preparatory Academy brought his parents’ loaded pistol to school to show it to classmates, police said. Two days earlier, a kindergarten student mistakenly left home with a backpack that contained his father’s gun, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.
At Pamoja Preparatory, a teacher noticed unusual behavior around the student at recess and took the handgun away. Police were called to the school and the Missouri Department of Social Services was notified, St. Louis Public Schools spokesman George Sells said. The boy was disciplined by the school.
St. Louis police Sgt. Charles Wall said the boy took the gun from a lock box under his parents’ bed. Wall said the parents won’t be charged because the gun was in a “presumed secured lock box.”
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On Wednesday of last week, a kindergarten student at Woerner Elementary School mistakenly took the wrong backpack when he left for school, Wall said.
Shortly after dropping his son off at school, the child’s father realized the mistake and returned to the school and notified the school principal, who found the firearm inside the backpack, Wall said.
“It was determined no criminal incident occurred,” said Wall, “and the book bag and firearm were returned to the parent along with a gun lock.”