Hamilton County, TN - Earlier this morning, at approximately 8:45 am, the School Resource Deputy at Chattanooga Preparatory School and school administrators began investigating information relative to a weapon that had been allegedly brought onto campus.

During the course of the investigation, the School Resource Deputy and one of the school administrators recovered a firearm from a student’s backpack. The student to which the backpack belonged fled the campus before they could be taken into custody.

“These types of threats are not occurring just in Hamilton County, we are seeing them occur in counties across our state and throughout our Nation. However, today’s incident highlights why we take every threat of mass violence seriously because there is always a risk of a child accessing a weapon whether from home or from other illegal means. Parents, if you have firearms at home, ensure they are securely locked and inaccessible to children and others. Never leave them out in your home or vehicle. We all need to do our part and be responsible for securing our weapons,” stated Sheriff Austin Garrett.

The investigation into the firearm and the student’s whereabouts remains under investigation by the HCSO with assistance from the Chattanooga Police Department. There is no threat to any of the students at Chattanooga Preparatory School at this time and classes resumed around 11:00 am.

In regards to the daily proactive safety measures taken by Chattanooga Prep’s administration, Sheriff Austin Garrett had this to note, “I want to highlight an important aspect of Chattanooga Prep’s security. Despite today’s unfortunate incident, the school's protocol requiring students to leave their backpacks in a designated building each morning is a smart precautionary measure. This limits student access to backpacks during the day, which ultimately reduces the risk of weapons or contraband being brought into classrooms or carried throughout the school day around campus.”

As this incident pertains to juveniles, no further information is available.