TAMAQUA - Although a gun being carried by a 20-month-old child and his grandparent inside the Tamaqua Area High School on Thursday was a toy, the borough's police chief said the incident was handled promptly by his officers and school officials.
Chief David Mattson said the child and his grandparent had the toy inside the building but had left by the time officers arrived. Officers were called after school personnel saw them with the toy on a video security system.
Mattson said the two were identified and officers contacted them a short time later at home.
"They recognized the error they made," Mattson said.
Although the gun was plastic and had an orange tip as required to show it was a toy, the chief said that the black and white video surveillance did not highlight that fact.
By immediately contacting police, Mattson said school officials acted properly, allowing quick action in the event the situation was more than just that of bad judgment.
Tamaqua school officials confirmed Thursday the toy gun was brought into the building with no harm intended.
"A grandparent made the mistake of allowing his grandson to bring a toy gun into the school," Tamaqua Area Superintendent Carol Makuta said. "Someone saw it and the police were contacted. They immediately responded, identified the person and handled it effectively and efficiently."
Mattson said no charges will be filed and that school officials are satisfied with the way the incident was handled.
The chief stressed that parents and guardians of younger children have to be aware of what they allow children to take with them into public buildings.
"It (the toy gun) has no business being in a school because of the trouble it can cause," Mattson said. "With the way the world is today, it's going to cause some kind of problems."
In Thursday's incident, the chief said the toy was being carried by both the child and grandparent at times, bringing concern to school officials.
The incident comes a day after an eighth-grade boy was shot and killed by police who thought he was brandishing a handgun inside a Texas school.
Police later learned that Jaime Gonzalez, 15, was holding a pellet gun Wednesday inside Cummings Middle School in Brownsville.
Officers fired at the boy after he refused repeated orders to drop what police believed to be an actual firearm.