Parents Not Notified Of Guns At School

SPRINGFIELD, Tenn. -- Parents in Springfield are asking why they weren’t notified about two guns turning up at their children’s school.

As students settled into their desks in a science class at Springfield High School Thursday morning, one student caught a teacher's attention.

"The teacher thought he heard him (the student) talking about dealing drugs and had reported it to the administrator for that reason," said Springfield High School Principal Rick Highsmith.

Highsmith said when the 11th-grader was confronted by school administrators and the school resource officer, they found the boy had a handgun tucked into his waistband.

"As he was being searched he said, 'I'm going to have to tell you I've got a gun.' And he took it out and laid it on the desk," Highsmith said.

When the school resource officer went back into the classroom and grabbed the student’s bag, a loaded gun and an extra clip were found, officials said.

"There was no reason given for the student to have a weapon. He had not made any threatening remarks to anyone," Highsmith said.

School administrators said they chose not to put the school on lockdown, because they felt they had the situation under control.

"We had no reason to suspect that anyone else had a gun," Highsmith said.

Faculty members were told about the incident after school but neither students nor their parents were given any details.

"I didn't want to cause excessive alarm, because I didn't feel at any time our students were in danger," Highsmith said.

One parent said he had no idea that a student brought guns to school, and others said they found out from their children.

All of the parents that Channel 4 spoke with said they wish they would have been alerted by the school system.

The student is being held at a juvenile detention center in Murfreesboro. He is charged with carrying guns on school property and altering the serial number on a weapon.