Two Gulfport High students arrested for packing pistol at school

GULFPORT, Miss. (WLOX) - Two teenage students were arrested and taken into custody Wednesday after a pistol was confiscated from a backpack at Gulfport High School.

The 15-year-old and 16-year-old landed behind bars and both are charged with possession of a firearm by a minor at a school.

According to authorities, students learned about the possibility of a gun on campus, they alerted school staff and administrators located and confiscated it within the hour.

“It’s one of those things that you just have to deal with, unfortunately, in today’s world,” Gulfport Schools Superintendent Glen East told WLOX. “I’m proud of what our administration did, our students and the work that they did in trying to take care of the situation.”

East said preliminary questioning revealed that one teen suspect initially stole the gun from the other during an event outside of school, and the other retrieved it before it was recovered from their backpack.

“Somebody stole the gun from somebody else, and it was a trying-to-get-it-back kind of situation,” East said.

East said the other students learned about the weapon via social media.

“I think we’re very lucky as a high school that our students, again, this is a great place for them, a place of education, and they don’t like putting up with this kind of stuff, this kind of distraction,” he said. “They came to us very quickly and administration here handled it very quickly.”

Officials said no one was injured, and all classes remained in progress.

The incident was secluded to the 9th and 10th grade buildings. Those parents were notified by email immediately.

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