ST. FRANCIS – Police say a dangerous discovery was made at a high school in Saint Francis. 

A cleaning crew at Thomas More High School found a backpack containing an unloaded hand gun, ammunition, practice targets, and earmuffs.

And, after a week-long investigation, they believe the whole thing is a simple mistake.

The owner of the backpack says it was unintentionally taken from the trunk of his car and brought into the school along with some equipment.

It happened during a school chess match last week.

No charges are expected.

[ETA] Link

First off: Dumb dumb dumb dumb. If you have a gun in your car, you need to take the precautions to make sure that it does not get left somewhere where it could be misused, or taken by someone with bad intentions, or who does not know how to handle it properly. The owner screwed up here.

That said, I applaud the school and (probably) local authorities for treating this as a mistake that is better dealt with outside the court system. Contrast that with some of the “Zero Tolerance” incidents where students were arrested for toy guns and the like.