MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A Memphis mother is in jail after her six-year-old child brought a gun to their kindergarten classroom at Germanshire Elementary School Tuesday, five days after another mother was arrested for a similar incident at Geeter K-8.
According to the Memphis Police Department, officers were called to Germanshire Elementary School Tuesday to an armed party call.
“I got three (students) there, so it’s very scary,” said Dee Dee Adams, who's daughter and two nieces all attend Germanshire Elementary.
A kindergarten teacher was helping her students take off their backpacks when she noticed one student's bag was "unusually heavy." When she went to look, she found an unloaded handgun in the child's bag, according to the police report.
“I was stunned. I didn’t know how to react," Adams said. "I was like, ‘I’m happy nobody got shot or anything.'”
The teacher sent the bag to the principal's office and called police. The child's mother arrived at the scene and told police the gun was hers, and she usually kept it hidden under a couch at home.
“Oh bad mistake," Adams said. "I hate that.”
The mother was arrested and charged with aggravated child endangerment.
This comes five days after another mother was arrested after a similar incident at Geeter K-8 School. And just like that incident, Germanshire parents told ABC24 that Memphis Shelby County Schools did not send our timely alerts about a gun in the classroom.
“We didn’t find out until the kids got dismissed from school," said Jada Knight, who also has a niece that attends Germanshire. "So it was kind of shocking.”
Tennessee state Representative Antonio Parkinson from Memphis says the problem is a lack of education on gun training.
“Had (the parents) had the education, or the gun safety training, then I think they would have known better," he said. "But the problem is, we parish for a lack of knowledge.”
When the state passed permitless carry in 2021, Rep. Parkinson advocated for mandatory, or at the very least, free gun safety training that is widely available.
Gun safety classes like the ones a new state law requires be taught in all Tennessee schools.
“Just got to do better as parents," Knight said. "That’s all.”
ABC24 once again asked MSCS why parents did not get timely alerts for yet another gun found in a school and if they plan on updating their emergency alert system.
They have not responded.
Officers responded to the earlier incident Sept. 5, 2024, around 9 a.m. at Geeter K-8 School on Horn Lake Road after receiving word that a student had a handgun. Police said they detained the student and found the gun. No injuries were reported.
When officers first arrived, they learned that a six-year-old boy was passing the gun around to other students in his classmates, according to an affidavit. A school staff member secured the weapon from the student's backpack.
After checking the gun's serial number, officers discovered the gun had been stolen. Police then spoke with the boy's mother, who confessed that the gun belonged to her. The mother also admitted to buying the gun from an unknown person.
What parents need to do to child-proof their guns
ABC24 spoke with firearms instructor Bennie Cobb shortly after the incident at Geeter.
He said that when it comes to gun safety, this mother allegedly did almost everything wrong.
“If you have a gun and you have children in the home, you have to take all the safety precautions,” Cobb said. “Kids are curious. They’re going to get those guns.”
Cobb said the best way to securely store a gun is to make sure the chamber is empty, attach a gun lock and store it in a safe.
He believes it could have prevented Thursday’s gun scare.
While no one was hurt, parents are still in shock.
“It’s really traumatizing to know that a young child, 6 years old...has access to a gun without the parent knowing,” said Geeter K-8 parent Darrin Rayford, whose son is in the sixth grade.
It’s why, once a month, Cobb said he does gun safety classes for children. They take a gun safety pledge and are even allow to fire the guns so they can see that they are not a toys
“When we have gun safety for kids — of course, the parents or guardians have to be there — we find the kids know more about guns than the adults,” Cobb said.
According to Cobb, it’s something more and more parents and kids should learn, especially in 2024. His classes are free for anyone to attend.
“Not only do we have to deal with it in our communities, we got to deal with it in our schools," Rayford said. "So it’s like nowhere our children are safe when they’re not around us,”
Rayford said they would like to see Geeter K-8 school return to its clear backpack policy.