A high school student in Memphis who was arrested Monday morning for possessing a firearm at school has been charged with carrying a weapon on school property and has been expelled.
The unnamed 17-year-old attended Power Center Academy Hickory Hill High School, which is a charter school under the umbrella of Gestalt Community Schools, in Memphis.
The Memphis Police Department (MPD) is handling the investigation.
MPD Public Information Officer Christopher Williams told The Star that the student did not make threats to use the firearm.
Instead it was found in his backpack while a school resource officer checked for marijuana, which he smelled coming from the student, according to ABC 24 News. The school resource officer also confiscated a marijuana vape.
ABC 24 also reported that the student told MPD that he was carrying the weapon for protection.
“Maintaining the safety of our scholars, faculty and staff is absolutely a top priority for our leadership team. During a security check, one of our school officers found a weapon in a scholar’s backpack,” Gracie Lee, a spokeswoman for Gestalt Community Schools told The Tennessee Star.
“Our team immediately moved to assess the matter and implement necessary safety precautions, which included notifying Memphis Police Department, securing the campus and conducting a threat assessment of the scholar.”
Lee told The Star that the student has been expelled and that it will up its security measures.
“Though the scholar was not threatening to use the weapon, Gestalt Community Schools has a zero tolerance policy for weapons of any kind within our school buildings,” she said. “The scholar involved was disciplined accordingly and will no longer attend our school. Our leadership team is assisting the police with their investigation, and moving forward, our security team will be conducting enhanced backpack searches for the foreseeable future.”
Memphis has been a hotbed of crime in recent years.
As reported by The Star in March, Memphis Mayor Paul Young met with gang leaders in the city in an attempt to broker a ceasefire.
Memphis had the highest murder rate of any large city in the United States last year.
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Pete D’Abrosca is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Pete on Twitter/X.
Photo “Power Center Academy” by Gestalt Community Schools.
