KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Officials found a gun in a student’s locker at a Park Hill middle school Friday, and a 13-year-old is in custody.

The Platte County Sheriff’s Office said the weapon was found at Lakeview Middle School. The school was placed on hold “out of an abundance of caution” at about 10:30 a.m. and was lifted at 11 a.m.

Regardless though, that didn’t stop parents from pulling their kids out of school.

“I don’t feel like he’s safe here,” parent Kristine Muck told FOX4 Friday.

Muck said she heard about the situation through FOX4’s news story. Park Hill Schools sent out an email about Friday’s situation, but Muck hadn’t checked her email yet.

“An email?” said Muck, who has a sixth grader at the school. “Who gets on? You have people working during the day. They cannot get on and check their email.”

Muck said it’s hard for parents to check their email while they’re working throughout the day.

“They think it’s OK to send an email, not an automated call saying, ‘Hey there’s an issue. The school’s on lockdown.’ We should be notified in some way other than an email,” she continued.

The Platte County Sheriff’s Office said they supply the school with a resource officer. The school was put on a hold for about a half an hour Friday.

“But we did want to make the public aware that the incident did happen,” Maj. Erik Holland said in an interview with FOX4 Friday. “The safety of the students was not in jeopardy. At the moment, it’s been addressed. The student’s not in the building, and he’s in custody.”

Muck said school shootings are one of her daily worries. She just put her son back into public school this year.

“It’s scary,” she said. “This is why I took him out because I’m finding out through the news. It’s sad.”  

There is no threat currently to the school, students or staff.

Officials took a 13-year-old boy associated with the locker where the gun was found into custody.

The sheriff’s office did not release any information about how officials learned about the weapon.

“The safety of our schools is a top priority for both the Platte County Sheriff’s Office and the Park Hill School District. We have a strong working relationship with the Park Hill School District to help protect our schools, the students, and the staff. The good work performed by the staff of the Park Hill School District and our school resource officers is what allows us to keep our kids safe.”

Platte County Sheriff Mark Owen

FOX4 reached out to the Park Hill School District for more information; the district sent us this letter sent to families following the incident:

Dear Lakeview Lynx Families,

This morning our school went on hold for approximately 30 minutes. We are grateful for our students and staff working to follow our protocols and procedures for being on a hold in our building. We began the hold at approximately 10:27 a.m. and all protocols worked as planned. We released the hold as of 11:00 a.m. in conjunction with law enforcement officials.

All is secure and we are currently working with law enforcement on an investigation as a result of this building hold.

During our hold, we found a handgun in a student locker. The weapon was immediately recovered and our law enforcement partners joined us immediately. Working with law enforcement partners, and in securing the weapon, our staff and students were safe and no threat was immediate. Our students and staff remained safe in their classrooms while administration and law enforcement worked through the incident.

Law enforcement partners followed protocol and secured the student during this process. The student is no longer at school. We will be following district handbook guidance in continuing our investigation.

Because there is now an active investigation into this occurrence, we will share what we can when we can. At this point, we wanted you to be informed of this incident so that you are aware of what caused us to be on a building hold.

We want to reiterate that all staff and students are safe and secure in our school and we plan to continue our regular school day.

Thank you for being partners in taking care of students each day. We appreciate your support and local law enforcement support during this time. If you have further questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Kirsten Clemons, principal