Staffers at a Florida elementary school got a scare Wednesday when they discovered a gun in the backpack of a first grader, according to a Facebook post from the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office.
Authorities said that a Meadowbrook Elementary School teacher found the loaded firearm in the backpack of one of his students. He was putting items in the bag for the student’s parent, they said.
Administrators reported the gun to Juvenile Relations Deputy C. Anderson, the Gainesville school’s resource officer at around 1 p.m. Anderson confirmed that the item was a loaded gun and it was made “safe” and stored in a safe location before the deputy began an investigation.
Through this investigation, authorities learned that the student who brought the backpack with a gun in it to school has not brought a backpack to school for months. Their teacher had asked the student’s parents to provide them with a backpack so they could bring school materials home.
Law enforcement said the student’s mother “instructed the student to go into the trunk of their vehicle and retrieve an old and tattered backpack to fulfill the request of the teacher,” and that she owns the firearm that was in the backpack. She typically stored it in the glove compartment of the vehicle, or under the driver’s seat.
“The mother of the student loaned the vehicle to a family member, who was contacted and stated that they were uncomfortable with the firearm being inside of the vehicle, so they placed the firearm inside of a pocket within the backpack, which was in the trunk of the vehicle,” according to authorities. “The family member did not disclose this information to the mother of the student. The family member did not believe that the old and tattered backpack belonged to the student, as she knows the student to have newer and nicer backpacks at home.”
As the child carried the pack containing the gun into the school, she did not know that the firearm was in it, the sheriff’s office said.
“Sheriff Clovis Watson Jr. believes that it is imperative that we brief our community on the circumstances regarding this incident now that we have completed a thorough investigation with accurate findings,” said the sheriff’s office.
Based on these findings and a consultation with the State Attorney’s Office, authorities have decided to file no criminal charges related to the incident. However, a “notification regarding this incident was made to the Department of Children and Family Services for further follow-up.”
“While this situation appears to be a terrible accident, we want to impress upon our community the desperate need for safe and responsible gun ownership, as this incident could have had a far worse outcome,” said the sheriff’s department.
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, firearms have recently become the number one cause of death for children and teens in the U.S. A 2015 study found that, at that time, more than 100 children in the country died annually due to unintentional firearm accidents.
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