4-year-old grabs loaded gun out of school employee’s backpack, Texas officials say

A Texas teacher’s aide who police say brought a gun to school has been fired after a student found and handled their firearm, according to officials.

The incident happened Oct. 12, at Bonham Prekindergarten School in San Marcos, police told KTBC.

“This afternoon, a student got a hold of an instructional assistant’s personal backpack. While looking through the backpack, the student discovered a firearm, removed it from the backpack, and placed it on a table inside the classroom,” San Marcos Consolidated Independent School District said in a letter to parents.

The teacher eventually spotted the gun and evacuated the classroom, the district said. A school marshal then searched the classroom, collected the gun and backpack, and police were called.

Investigators said the gun was loaded, and the teacher’s aide will be charged with unlawful carrying of a weapon in a gun-free zone, KTBC reported.

Samantha Vargas, mother of the 4-year-old who found the gun, is thinking about pulling her son out of school for his safety, she told KXAN.

Vargas wonders how long he had access to the gun before the teacher stepped in, but her son has nonverbal autism and can’t tell her, the outlet reported.

“I know how he is — he had to examine it before putting it down. Anything could have happened in (those) few seconds,” she told the station. “That’s what keeps replaying through my head.”

He could have unintentionally shot not only himself, but his classmates, Vargas told KVUE.

“There’s two teachers in there. Where were both these teachers at the time?” Vargas said.

The employee, who the school has not identified publicly, is no longer with the district, the news release said.

This story was originally published October 18, 2023 at 10:33 AM with the headline "4-year-old grabs loaded gun out of school employee’s backpack, Texas officials say."