CHARLOTTE, N.C. — School safety is top of mind right now after a gun was found on a Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools campus on Thursday.
Ranson Middle School went on lockdown Thursday morning after school officials said a student dropped the unloaded gun in an outdoor trash can.
It’s the second such incident in just the past few days. On Tuesday, a student at South Mecklenburg High School was found in possession of a gun, according to officials.
CMS said in the case at Ranson, the student brought a gun to school, but the weapon did not make it into the building. Still, some parents were picking up their children very alarmed.
“I was at work. I rushed out of there crying tears in my eyes,” one mother told NBC Charlotte.
She described the frantic moments as she was on the phone with her daughter who was inside the school.
“(She was) telling me they are rushing them in classes, telling me their lives are in danger,” she said.
“We were just sitting there silent and we were all scared and texting our parents,” a student, Jayda, told NBC Charlotte.
CMS sent a letter to parents saying a student on a bus brought the unloaded gun to school.
"Hello Ranson IB families, this is Principal Brown with a safety update about our Ranson community. It is important to know first that all students and staff are safe and that there is no threat at our campus. Earlier today, an unloaded firearm was located inside a trash bin on our campus. Out of an abundance of caution, our school was placed on lockdown for a period of time. The unloaded firearm was brought onto campus by a student on a bus and was then discarded into a trash can outside a school building. The firearm was never brought inside our school building and was retrieved from the trash bin by law enforcement without incident. This matter is under investigation by law enforcement. Any students in violation of the CMS Student Code of Conduct will be disciplined according to those provisions. Please talk to your students about why guns have no place at school and encourage them to reach out to any adult if they feel they need help or want to talk about any issue of concern to them. Thank you for your support of Ranson IB."
Just days earlier, school officials say there was another threat at Ranson which they say parents were notified about.
“There was a threat written on the bathroom on Tuesday that they were planning to shoot up the school today,” one mother told NBC Charlotte.
“If you all know students are threatening to shoot up the schools, why isn’t there a big parent meeting?” a father said. “My son wouldn’t have come to school today if I knew there were threats to shoot up the school today.”
CMS said there was no specified threat in the South Mecklenburg case.
At Ranson, some parents were not taking chances even after the lockdown was lifted.
“Everybody is safe, but I just felt the need to take my kids,” a mother told NBC Charlotte.
CMS said the lockdown was lifted when police determined there was no threat to students and staff.