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Student Caught With Gun At South Meck Weeks After Gun Screening

South Meck Foundation

A South Mecklenburg High School student was caught with a gun Tuesday, according to CMS officials.

No details were given about how the gun was discovered by school officials. In a message sent to parents, South Mecklenburg’s principal only said that there was no indication that any student or staff members were  threatened with the weapon and that it was immediately turned over to the school’s resource officer. 

Tuesday’s incident comes just weeks after Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools officials began conducting random security screening of students for weapons. Four classrooms at South Meck were screened earlier this month and  no weapons were found. CMS launched screenings in district high schools late last month in hopes of deterring students from bringing guns and other weapons to school.

[Related Content: CMS Launches Safety Screenings To Check High Schoolers For Weapons]

The district finished its first round of screenings, searching eight schools and finding no guns or other weapons. CMS has drawn the names of 10 more schools to search in its second round of screenings. That round has not yet begun.  

The bolstered security measures a response to a fatal shooting of a student last October in the hallways of Butler High School in Matthews. A fellow student was arrested and charged in the incident. The shooting shook the school community, spurring the district to seek new measures to make sure weapons stayed off school campuses.

District officials say they have enhanced other security measures — including expanded video surveillance, fortified locks and additional digital technology to monitor school entrances.

Last week, a parent at Southwest Middle school said her son was threatened with a gun in a Snapchat photo and complained that school officials were slow to address the incident. In a message to parents, the school’s principal said they were aware of the rumor about the incident but that they found no evidence of a credible threat to any of the school’s students. The mother showed a video of the Snapchat message in the Charlotte Observer.