Michigan school district bans backpacks after third grader caught with gun

A Michigan school district has banned backpacks after a third grader was caught with a gun in their bag — the second firearm confiscated this week from elementary students in the district, according to officials.

The third-grade student was found with a loaded handgun in their backpack at Stocking Elementary School in Grand Rapids on Wednesday morning, according to the district.

“This is as serious as it gets for a school leader,” Grand Rapids Public School Superintendent Leadriane Roby told WMMT. “I’m deeply concerned, frustrated, and angry that in less than a week’s time, we have confiscated two guns from elementary school children.”

The gun was recovered after a student reported it to staff members. Authorities have not yet announced any charges.

“We have to come together to do something about guns getting into the hands of our babies,” said Roby. “We are taking action as a district and we are pleading with each member of this community for your support.”

Grand Rapids police took possession of the weapon, and the young student was removed from the school.

In response, the district has decided that students at Grand Rapids Public Schools will no longer be permitted to carry backpacks inside school buildings, Roby said.

Four guns have now been recovered this academic year in the district, with all incidents involving students in middle school or younger, according to school officials.

Just last Wednesday a second-grader at the district’s Cesar E. Chavez Elementary School was found with a loaded gun, WMMT reported.

A classmate reported the gun to school staff, which was recovered from a backpack inside of the student’s locker, officials said.

The incidents come amid an alarming trend of younger children bringing deadly weapons to school.

In January, a troubled 6-year-old boy brought a gun to school at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News and shot his first-grade teacher, Abigail Zwerner. 

The boy was not charged but his mother was indicted by a grand jury last month and charged with felony child neglect and recklessly leaving a firearm so as to endanger a child and faces up to six years in prison.

Zwermer has since recovered but is suing the school for $40 million.

A month later and just 25 miles away, a mother of another 6-year-old was charged by Norfolk, Virginia, police after school staff discovered her child brought a handgun to school.

In a separate incident, a 6-year-old boy’s mother was arrested in Norristown, Pennsylvania in February after students reported that the boy was flashing the gun and bullets on the bus, NBC10 reported. 

Police recovered the unloaded gun and the boy’s mother, Jasmin Devlin, 30, surrendered to police and was charged with endangering the welfare of a child and reckless endangerment, the station reported.

A 6-year-old was also found with an unloaded 9mm handgun in his backpack at Fairview Elementary School school in Rocky Mount, North Carolina in February, WRAL reported. 

Police charged Marvin Ray Davis, 58, with storage of a firearm to protect a minor. Davis is not related to the boy, but lives in the same house as him, cops said.