8-year-old brings gun to school and shows it off during recess, NC district says

A second grader brought a gun to a North Carolina school and showed it off at recess, officials said.

Now, the 8-year-old accused of having the weapon has been suspended for a year, according to Public Schools of Robeson County.

Officials said the student showed the gun to another child on Thursday, Dec. 2. The incident was reported at W.H. Knuckles Elementary School in Lumberton, roughly 95 miles south of Raleigh.

When the other student told a teacher about seeing a gun, a school resource officer was notified, according to the district. Officials said charges could be filed in the case.

The handgun had bullets inside, though there wasn’t one in the chamber, the district said.

This marks at least the second time this school year that Robeson County officials reported finding a gun on an elementary school campus. In October, two people faced charges after the district said a loaded weapon was found inside a kindergartner’s backpack at Tanglewood Elementary School.

District spokesperson Gordon Burnette said two other guns had been discovered at Lumberton Senior High School, and others were found outside Fairmont High School and in a car near Purnell Swett High School. The district understands concerns about gun violence and is doing what it can to keep students and workers safe, according to Burnette.

“We’ve had meetings with the sheriff’s department about beefing up our law enforcement presence on campus,” the spokesperson told McClatchy News in October. “They’ve also enacted random searches that are happening weekly within our high schools.”

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