According to the Swain County School System, at approximately 7:45 on Thursday morning, a student at Swain East Elementary School notified a teacher of a potential gun in another student’s backpack. The teacher opened the backpack and saw what she believed to be a handgun. The teacher immediately notified East Elementary Principal Amanda Sutton who secured the bag and placed the school on lockdown.
The School Resource Officer then took the bag, and upon initial observation believed it to be a handgun. Once he took it out of the backpack, he discovered that it was an airsoft gun. At this time, with the airsoft gun secured, there was no further threat and the lockdown, and perimeter lockdown of our Swain County Schools, was lifted and all activities have returned to normal.
According to Swain County Sheriff Curtis Cochran, the airsoft gun was an exact replica of a handgun.
“This air soft gun was an exact replica of a 1911 handgun without any distinctive feasures that would indicate that it was an airsoft gun,” said Sheriff Cochran. “You can be assured that the sheriff’s Office and the Resource Officers will do everything in our power to make sure that our schools, children and staff are safe and can have a good learning environment. Please check your childs bookbags to make sure that they are not bringing this type of things into the schools.”
The investigation into the incident by Swain County Schools is ongoing at this time.
Remember the good old days when kids brought their guns to school for firearms training and marksmanship contests? When about half of the cars in high school parking lots had gun racks in the back window, some of them filled? Am I really that old ???