Parents angry over officials’ response to Red Bank student found with gun

RED BANK, Tenn. (WDEF) — Many Red Bank High School parents picked up their children in the middle of the day Wednesday after a student was found with a gun.

Dr. Jimmy Turner says he was scared when he received texts from both his sons saying that Red Bank was in a soft lockdown. Their teachers locked the doors and told the class no one was allowed to leave.

“This is unacceptable,” Red Bank parent Dr. Jimmy Turner said. “How are we supposed to have confidence in the people who we expect to protect our children if they are not making sure that we are informed that there’s an actual threat against our children?”

Jimmy Turner called everyone he could think of when his two sons texted him saying a student had a gun at Red Bank High School.

According to Turner, the school system, sheriff’s office and city manager denied knowing of any incident at the school.

“The SRO, of course this is what they just told me, said that ‘No, there was no lockdown.’ But my kids are right there telling me that ‘No, the teacher said they just got an email from the principal saying don’t let any of their students out.'”

According to a Red Bank student I spoke to who didn’t want to go on camera, his friend saw the suspect show his loaded gun to students and told the teacher.

Hamilton County Schools confirmed this, saying a student was found with a weapon, and that Hamilton County Sheriff is investigating.

Parents received this message after the fact: “Working with the school SRO, we moved quickly to locate the student, and the student was found to be in possession of a weapon”

Turner is thankful the school handled it, but he’s still left wanting.

“I’m so angry at the response that we seem to be getting publicly,” Turner said. ‘Thank God my kids weren’t one of those that were texting their parents at Parkland, knowing that they were about to die. But my kids are instead texting me because a situation that could have turned into Parkland is going on at their school with an armed child and we’re not being told anything?”

News 12 did receive word from the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office late Wednesday afternoon. The department says the student was arrested for possession of a weapon on school grounds and theft/possession of stolen property.