There’s a certain level of responsibility one needs to exercise when you own a gun. That duty becomes even more imperative when you own a firearm and care for a child. Children are curious and get into things. With underdeveloped brains, they rarely understand the severity of their actions. That was the case for a third grader who packed his parents’ gun in his backpack right along with his books.
He didn’t just potentially endanger his own life carrying it against his body; he also caused panic for his peers and teacher when the loaded weapon accidentally went off in the classroom.
The gun went off when the boy reached in his backpack.
The boy, who attends Lee Hill Elementary School in Fredricksburg, Virginia, reached in his bag and accidentally pulled the trigger at 11 a.m. April 7, 2025, the Miami Herald reported. Moving quickly, his teacher evacuated all 26 students from the room. The staffer also contacted the student resource officer at the school. Thankfully, no one was hurt.
A representative for the Spotsylvania County Public Schools commended the teacher’s efforts. “School staff immediately followed safety protocols that included securing the weapon, safely removing students from the classroom to the cafeteria, going into a school-wide hold, and conducting a threat assessment,” read the statement to McClatchy News.
Police charged the boy’s parents.
Deputies said that although the student intentionally placed the gun in his bag, he had no plans to harm anyone, the New York Post reported. Regardless of the son’s intentions, authorities arrested the boy’s parents, 36-year-old CIara Armstead and 34-year-old Terrence Carroll Jr. They were charged with the misdemeanor of “recklessly leaving a loaded, unsecured firearm so as to endanger the life or limb of a child under the age of 14,” the Spotsylvania Sheriff’s Office shared in a post on Facebook.
The parents bonded out of jail.
They also were charged with willfully or negligently causing or permitting the life of a child in their custody to be endangered. This more severe charge is a felony. Police said the two cooperated with authorities, according to the Post. The third grader is not being charged in the incident. Both parents were released on a $5,000 bond. They have an arraignment date of April 11.
The community is not pleased.
In the comment section of the police statement, one man shared his personal connection to the story. “My Granddaughter was in that classroom,” he wrote. “She doesn’t want to return to school, she has been traumatized.”
Although many parents debated whether the boy brought the gun to do harm and if he also needed to be punished, a few people expressed empathy for the child in the comment section. “Hopefully continuous welfare checks are set up for the child,” one person wrote.
