Atlanta police don’t believe a gun found at a high school one day had anything to do with a fight involving more than a dozen students the following day.
But both incidents this week at The New Schools at Carver are being investigated, police and school officials said Thursday.
On Tuesday, a principal alerted the school resource officer that a 16-year-old student was believed to have a gun in her purse, according to Atlanta police. Another student at the school had alerted a teacher with a handwritten note, police said.
The girl, whose name was not released, initially denied she had a gun before giving officers a revolver from her purse. The gun contained two rounds, according to police.
“The handgun was wrapped in a blue bandanna and a hair bonnet,” according to police information obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The teen, placed in handcuffs and questioned by school leaders and officers, later admitted she was holding the gun for another student, police said. That student, a 16-year-old boy whose name was not released, and the girl were both arrested and transferred to a youth detention center. The boy is a known gang member, according to police.
In a separate incident, about 20 students were involved in fight in front of Carver shortly after exiting school buses Wednesday morning, according to police.
School resource officers called for additional officers and had to deploy pepper spray to stop the fighting, Carlos Campos, Atlanta police spokesman, said Thursday. Paramedics were called to the school to treat students for minor injuries, he said.
Thirteen students were charged with affray and disorderly conduct and released to their parents, Campos said. One parent was arrested, along with a juvenile son.
“At this time, it appears that the fight was between members of two neighborhoods and the Atlanta Police Gang Unit was called to investigate,” Campos said in an emailed statement.
