Beaufort County student arrested after pellet gun found at school

A 17-year-old Islands Academy student was arrested after school Friday after school officials found a pellet gun in his backpack, according to a Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office report.

The student is charged with possession of a weapon on school property, a felony, according to online Beaufort County Detention Center records. He was arrested and booked into the detention center at 5 p.m. on Friday and released on personal recognizance late Saturday morning, according to online Beaufort County court records.

A black pellet gun and a container of pellets were found inside a laptop case in the student’s backpack, according to the report.

After a tip from another student at the Burton school, the school’s safety officer searched the teen and his backpack in the nurse’s station with two school officials present: Principal Susan Guillen and Gregory McCord, the Beaufort County School District’s chief auxiliary services officer.

That student allegedly told the principal about the gun just before classes were dismissed for the day, saying the student who brought the weapon had been “showing it off to other students at lunch,” according to the report. When the pellet gun was found, the student was taken to Guillen’s office while the Sheriff’s Office was called.

This story was originally published February 6, 2018 at 4:32 PM with the headline "Beaufort County student arrested after pellet gun found at school."