Maryland school finds gun in 13-year-old's lunch box

WALDORF, Md. — School administrators found a loaded handgun in a 13-year-old’s lunch box in a Maryland middle school Thursday afternoon.

After being alerted that a student possibly had a gun at around 12:40 p.m., a student resource officer at Benjamin Stoddert Middle School in Charles County found the child and located a handgun in an otherwise empty lunch box they had brought to school. 

The child did not make any threats and was charged on a juvenile offensive report with possession of a firearm on school grounds. The Charles County Sheriff’s Office said the teenager will face school disciplinary consequences but did not say what kind of consequences.

The student resource officer who found the gun is investigating where the child got the gun and why they brought it to school.

Police have not provided any details on the teenager other than their age.

Benjamin Stoddert Middle School is a public school and had 925 students enrolled in the 2022-23 academic year. It is in Waldorf, Maryland, a city with 81,410 residents as of the 2020 census.

This is just days after a 6-year-old in Virginia brought a gun to school and a 16-year-old in Montgomery County tried to shoot a classmate getting off the bus off-campus after school. It's only weeks after deadly school shootings in Winder, Georgia and Joppatowne, Maryland.

The sheriff’s office is asking anyone with information about this case to call them at 301-609-3282 ext. 0722.