Texas school district takes harsh action against student over old photo of student holding handgun

The Iola Independent School District in Texas is disciplining a student after an old photo showing that student with a handgun resurfaced on social media.

Investigators said the 4-year-old photo, which surfaced on Facebook on Aug. 22, shows the unidentified teenager holding a handgun with an adult present when he was 9 years old, KBTX-TV reported. The social media post also reportedly mentioned the word "school."

So, last week, on just the second day of the new school year, the student was questioned about the photo. Law enforcement then said there was no threat.

Iola ISD superintendent Scott Martindale told KBTX the sole issue was that the picture had a caption using the word "school" — although it was not used in a threatening manner.

"It was a young student, had a handgun in the picture and part of the wording on the picture it had the word 'school' in it. So we take that stuff very seriously here. As we investigated we found out the picture was a four-year-old picture," Martindale said. "The picture had a caption that mentioned school. It did not threaten the school whatsoever it just mentioned the school."

Grimes County Sheriff Lt. Daniel Wagnon claimed there was sufficient cause for concern and the investigation was necessary.

"The issue was not that the juvenile had a firearm, he was under adult supervision at the time he had the firearm. The sole reason for the investigation was that the comment was made about the school in conjunction with a firearm," he told KBTX.

However, despite never bringing a weapon onto campus nor breaking any law, Martindale said the student will still be disciplined "according to district policy."