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A 15-year-old freshman at Gibbs High School was arrested after a school staff member noticed him apparently hiding a gun in his clothing and alerted the campus school resource officer, who found a handgun concealed on the student. Investigators took the teenager into custody, and police say he made no threats toward classmates, staff, or the school itself.
The arrest, reported by the Tampa Free Press, leaves the ninth-grader facing felony charges of possession of a weapon on school property along with unlawful carry of a concealed firearm. Police have not released the teen's identity because of his age. The St. Petersburg Police Department says it will investigate any weapon found on a campus or any other threat to school safety, and that student safety remains its priority.
A Familiar Pattern at Gibbs High
This is not the first time a tip has led school staff to a gun at Gibbs High School. In January 2025, a 16-year-old sophomore was arrested after administrators and the school resource officer received word that he had brought a stolen firearm onto campus, a case that included felony charges for possessing a stolen firearm and being a felon in possession of a weapon, according to IONTB.
Roughly eight months earlier, in May 2024, St. Petersburg police arrested a 16-year-old Gibbs sophomore after a gun turned up in his backpack, again following a tip; officers said at the time that no threats had been made toward the school, as reported by Patch. And in December 2022, a 15-year-old freshman was arrested after a teacher spotted a social media post showing the student holding a firearm in a campus bathroom and immediately alerted the resource officer, according to a separate Patch report. In each of these cases, staff vigilance or a tip allowed a school resource officer to step in before any threat or act of violence occurred.
What the Teen Could Face
The felony charges carry serious weight under Florida law. Possessing a firearm on school grounds is a third-degree felony under Florida Statute § 790.115, punishable by up to five years in prison and a fine of as much as $5,000, according to the text of the statute published on Online Sunshine. Carrying an unlicensed concealed firearm is also a separate third-degree felony under Florida Statute § 790.01, carrying the same maximum five-year sentence — a prohibition that Florida's 2023 permitless concealed carry law explicitly kept in place for school campuses.
Beyond the criminal case, the freshman faces mandatory administrative consequences. Florida Statute § 1006.13 requires school districts to expel any student found with a firearm on campus for at least a full calendar year, though district school boards may place expelled students in alternative education programs during that period. Pinellas County Schools Policy 5500.08 additionally requires campus administrators to report any firearm found on school property to law enforcement immediately, classifying such incidents as zero-tolerance offenses.
Unanswered Questions About the Gun's Origin
It remains unclear where or how the teenager obtained the handgun, and whether investigators will pursue misdemeanor charges against a parent or gun owner under Florida's safe firearm storage law, Florida Statute § 790.174. That statute makes it a second-degree misdemeanor for a gun owner to fail to securely store a loaded firearm away from a minor under 16 if that minor then accesses the weapon and displays it in a public place, with loaded firearms required to be kept in locked containers or secured with trigger locks.
Pinellas County Schools has also been piloting school-based weapons detection systems as part of a broader safe schools initiative aimed at keeping firearms off campuses in coordination with local law enforcement. The effort comes as St. Petersburg police have dealt with other school-related firearm cases in recent years, including the February 2025 arrest of a 17-year-old Northeast High School student who was charged over a threatening social media post after posting about committing a mass shooting on campus.
The St. Petersburg Police Department has warned students that weapons on campus are taken very seriously and that the consequences can be severe. For now, the teenager's case moves forward on two fronts — a criminal docket carrying the possibility of years in prison, and a school district process that guarantees at least a year away from the classroom.
