A gun was found in Lexington County school. The student said it fell into his backpack

A middle school student in Gaston is accused of taking his mother’s pistol to school and showing it around to other students.

Frances Mack Intermediate School principal Sara Ankrapp told a Lexington County Sheriff’s investigator that a young boy had brought a pink, .380 caliber Taurus PT 738 pistol to school on Sept. 29 and had been showing it around to other students, according to the incident report.

While the investigator spoke with the principal, the boy allegedly said that the firearm had “fallen into his backpack” from a shelf in his home, and “he didn’t know what to do with it,” the report stated.

Ankrapp told the investigator that school officials were told the student also had asked other students to hold the gun in their backpack instead of his, according to the report. The pistol was found in another student’s backpack.

The firearm was unloaded and did not have a magazine. The boy’s mother told the investigator that she typically kept the gun in her car, but that she had taken it out because her car was with a mechanic, the report stated. She said she had placed it in the back area of her dresser.

No additional information was provided in the report. A request for comment from Lexington County School District 4 was not immediately returned.