CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Charlotte-Mecklenburg school officials said a student brought a gun on the bus to Ranson Middle School in north Charlotte Thursday morning.
The school on Statesville Road was placed on lockdown, which was eventually lifted.
"The announcement came on talking about, ‘Lockdown, lockdown," student Alyson Rivera said.
[ALSO READ: Teenager charged with bringing loaded gun to South Mecklenburg High School]
Officials said the student brought the unloaded gun on the bus, then threw it into a trash can outside a school building.
"People just started running to the ground and stuff,” Rivera said. “It was pretty scary actually. I got scared, so I just started to pray."
They said the weapon was never brought inside.
"They’re saying it was a gun on school campus,” parent Georgette Chavero said. “Me, being the protective mom that I am, my kids come first."
The following message was sent home to families:
Hello Ranson IB families, this is Principal Brown with a safety update about our Ranson community. It is important to know first that all students and staff are safe and that there is no threat at our campus. Earlier today, an unloaded firearm was located inside a trash bin on our campus. Out of an abundance of caution, our school was placed on lockdown for a period of time. The unloaded firearm was brought onto campus by a student on a bus and was then discarded into a trash can outside a school building. The firearm was never brought inside our school building and was retrieved from the trash bin by law enforcement without incident. This matter is under investigation by law enforcement. Any students in violation of the CMS Student Code of Conduct will be disciplined according to those provisions. Please talk to your students about why guns have no place at school and encourage them to reach out to any adult if they feel they need help or want to talk about any issue of concern to them. Thank you for your support of Ranson IB.
This comes just weeks after CMS started random security screenings at high schools in the district. Middle schools are not currently screened.
Just Thursday morning, the district conducted four random classroom screenings at Butler High School. Officials did not find any deadly weapons but did find pepper spray on a student.
[RELATED: Charges reduced against teen accused of shooting classmate to death at Butler HS]
The security sweeps were put in place after a deadly shooting inside Butler High School in October, 2018.
Check back for updates on this developing story.