A 14-year-old student at Plant City High School was arrested shortly after 3 p.m. Tuesday after school administrators found a loaded .40 caliber handgun and drug paraphernalia in his backpack, according to the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office.
Susan Sullivan, the principal at Plant City High School, said the student was fighting another student after the school had let out for the day. She said they believe it was brought on by an incident over the weekend.
A HCSO School Resource Deputy and school personnel broke up the fight. The student with the gun tried to run away but was apprehended. When the students were brought to the office, a search of his backpack was performed and a Glock Model 22 with 11 bullets and scales was found inside, according to the report.
Sullivan said there was no incident on campus yesterday where the gun was shown to anyone.
“Had the fight not happened, we might not have found the weapon,” Sullivan said. “Luckily it was after school, nobody was hurt and we were able to deal with it and the child was arrested, and he will no longer be a student at Plant City High School.”
Sullivan said the school has several protocols in place to handle similar situations. If a weapon is suspected on campus the resource officer immediately takes control and, if necessary, the school will go into lockdown.
“It could have been a very, very dangerous situation, and we are very grateful it wasn’t and that we were able to deal with it very efficiently,” Sullivan said.