‘Misunderstanding’ led Midlands student to bring gun to school, police say
Calhoun County School District officials on Friday confiscated a firearm from a 14-year-old student who brought the weapon to school to store it for afterschool clay shooting practice, the Calhoun County Sheriff’s Office.
The sheriff’s office, which was called to investigate the incident at Sandy Run K8 School in Swansea, said in a Facebook post that no one was threatened or harmed, and that the situation was under control.
Still, the child was removed from the school and will face disciplinary action, according to the sheriff’s office, which has opened a criminal investigation and plans to pursue criminal charges.
A preliminary investigation determined the incident stemmed from a misunderstanding between the boy’s mother and school administrators, Chief Deputy Matt Trentham said.
The mother incorrectly believed a school administrator had signed off on letting her son store his shotgun at the school, he said.
As a result, the boy brought the gun to school Friday in a locked case and left it in the administrative office, Trentham said.
“The child literally took a locked case straight from the car into the administrative office and said ‘Can you give this to the principal to secure it?’” he said. “Our (school resource officer) was there and he immediately secured it and started going from there.”
While there was no malicious intent, Trentham said the boy likely would be expelled and the mother likely would be charged because it’s illegal to carry guns on school property.
“It was just a misunderstanding all the way around,” he said.
This story was originally published April 28, 2023 at 3:06 PM.