Police: 16-year-old Coconut Creek High School student arrested for bringing gun to school Friday

COCONUT CREEK — A 16-year-old student at Coconut Creek High School was arrested Friday after someone reported he had a gun on campus, police said.

Students were placed on a lockdown for hours while officers searched for a gun at the school. Some time after 4 p.m., officers found a gun hidden inside tires near the school’s baseball field, said Sgt. Scotty Leamon, a spokesperson for Coconut Creek Police.

Someone at the school saw the student, who is from North Lauderdale, with a gun and reported it to a school employee, triggering the lockdown, Leamon said.

The student, whom the South Florida Sun Sentinel is not naming because he is a minor, is facing charges of possession of a firearm on school grounds, possession of a firearm with a defaced serial number and disrupting a school function.

It was not immediately clear whether the gun was loaded. The student did not brandish the gun or threaten anyone at the school, Leamon said, and no one was injured.

The school is typically dismissed by 1:35 p.m., Broward County Public Schools said in an email, but students were still locked down shortly before 4 p.m. Friday. The School District’s email said officers were still searching for a gun at that time and students had not been cleared to leave.

In recent months, several minor students at schools across Broward County have been arrested for bringing guns to their schools.

In August, a Miramar High Student brought a loaded, stolen gun to school in his backpack. Then in November, a 16-year-old Northeast High School was also found to have a loaded gun in his bag

Most recently, a 7-year-old Dillard Elementary School student took a gun to school in March.