Boy, 10, arrested for bringing a gun to school

A 10-year-old boy has been arrested after bringing a gun to his school in the state of Maine.

Police were called to Monroe Elementary School in Monroe on Friday before 9am after it was discovered the student had arrived baring a firearm.

No one was injured in the incident, and he was arrested and taken to the Waldo County Sheriff’s Office.

The force confirmed there was no ongoing threat to the school or the community.

Monroe is a rural community of about 900 people, about 100 miles northeast of Portland.

The small school has about 70 students and is set on a two-lane road amid rolling hills and forest.

Ted Pellerin, who lives near the school and sent his own children there years ago, stressed that the reports are ‘alarming’.

The 64-year-old said it seemed the community avoided a tragedy, adding that the incident should prompt ‘a discussion about how dangerous something like that could be, how seriously something like that could be’.

‘It’s a quiet, rural community with nice people who support each other,’ he added.

Other communities in the US have also seen their share of firearms showing up at elementary schools recently.

The incident in Monroe comes just weeks after a six-year-old boy brought a gun to his primary school in Virginia.

Again, no one was hurt, and the handgun had already been confiscated by staff at the Little Creek Elementary School when police turned up.

In Naples, Florida, an 11-year-old student was arrested in 2021 after bringing an unloaded gun to school and threatening two classmates, authorities said. 

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