A 7th-grade student who pointed a loaded handgun at a Salem Middle School classmate Thursday morning is in police custody.
"The student was playing with the gun around other students, who then told the principal," Rodney Jenkins, spokesman for the DeKalb County School System, told the AJC. "It is that bravery that prohibited a major issue."
The 14-year-old pointed the gun at the students around 8:45 a.m., five minutes before the start of classes at the Lithonia school, Jenkins said. The boy then hid the weapon in the stage area of the cafeteria, he said.
Two students reported the gun to the principal, who located the student accused of having the weapon, Jenkins said.
"The student did take the principal to where the gun was," Jenkins said.
The gun did contain bullets, Jenkins said. The principal, Donald Mason, attempted unsuccessfully to reach the boy's parents and called police, he said.
The boy, whose name was not released, was taken into custody by DeKalb County police officers, who are investigating the incident, Jenkins said.
A letter will be sent to all parents at the school notifying them of the incident, Jenkins said. Mason will also address the issue at an open house planned at the school Thursday evening.
The school is located at 5333 Salem Road.
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