A pair of baby-face Florida 10-year-olds were arrested this week for a $300 gun sale deal brokered inside a local elementary school, officials said.
Country Oaks Elementary in LaBelle was put under immediate lockdown Wednesday after a concerned parent called administrators and told them her child alerted her that a classmate was in possession of a gun.
Hendry County sheriff’s deputies responded to investigate the claims.
They would later find a backpack on school grounds containing ammunition and 74 grams of marijuana belonging to a 10-year-old student.
The Post is withholding the names of both kids due to their ages.
Deputies located the gun hidden near a shed in the backyard of one of the school’s pupils.
Police learned the boy had purchased the firearm from a 10-year-old classmate in February, and it had belonged to his deceased father.
The seller’s mother, police said, is a local police deputy.
She has been put on administrative leave pending the outcome of an internal probe.
The child purchaser of the firearm is facing a slew of charges, including purchase of a firearm, unlawful possession of a firearm by a minor, having a gun on school property and drug possession.
The seller was charged with selling a firearm to a minor, possession of a firearm by a minor, possession of a firearm on school property and theft.
Both kids have remained in the custody of the Department of Juvenile Justice since their arrest.
Parents told local outlets they were stunned by the transaction considering the age of the two boys involved.
Some said they were considering pulling their children out of the school.
“It’s heartbreaking,” Hendry County Superintendent Michael Swindle said. “We focus on education, but society has gotten us to a place where, we don’t know what led us to this in this child’s life, but this is a very sad situation.”
The administrator said he believes the arrests could well have prevented a school shooting down the line.