A student was removed from Somerset Elementary School and taken into custody Tuesday after a gun was discovered inside their backpack, according to Somerset ISD police. School staff and officers seized the weapon after the district's police department was notified about the firearm at 12:45 p.m. No threats were made and no one was injured, officials said.
The incident unfolded at the rural southwest Bexar County campus, which has a current enrollment of 680 students in grades one through four as part of Somerset ISD, a district spanning 85 square miles across Bexar and Atascosa counties, according to HAR.com. As reported by WOAI, the student was taken into custody after school staff and officers responded to the report and recovered the firearm.
Somerset ISD maintains its own internal police department, according to the district's own account of its policing structure. That internal force was the agency notified about the firearm Tuesday, while school staff and officers took the student into custody, the station's report indicates.
What Texas Law Says About Guns on Campus
According to Texas Penal Code language cited by FindLaw, bringing a firearm onto the grounds of a Texas public or private school is a third-degree felony under state law, punishable by two to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000. Texas Penal Code Section 46.03 requires intentional, knowing, or reckless possession or carrying of a firearm at a school, although it does not require an intent to harm anyone. Separately, adults can face criminal accountability if a child under 17 gains access to an unsecured, readily dischargeable firearm through criminal negligence — a Class C misdemeanor, or a Class A misdemeanor if the weapon is discharged and causes death or serious injury, per guidance from the Texas School Safety Center.
Texas law also requires public school districts to distribute safe firearm storage information to parents and guardians, stressing that keeping guns unloaded and locked away helps prevent children from accessing them, according to safety guidance published by Alvin Independent School District. How the student in Tuesday's incident obtained the firearm, and whether any adult could face charges under the state's safe-storage statutes, remains unknown.
Post-Uvalde Reforms Shape District Response
The incident comes in the wake of the 2022 Uvalde school shooting.
The Somerset case echoes other recent school-safety concerns in Bexar County. In May 2025, an 11-year-old student was arrested at Harris Middle School in San Antonio's Northeast ISD after a classmate alerted staff to a gun hidden in a backpack, as Hoodline previously reported.
Broader Concerns Around School Firearms
School firearm incidents can draw swift responses. Safety remains a concern for schools and educators.
In attacks occurring over a Friday and Saturday weekend reported on August 23, 2026, loose dogs killed at least 20 show animals at the district's agriculture barn, as described in the report. It remains unclear how Somerset ISD plans to handle disciplinary proceedings for the elementary-age student involved in Tuesday's firearm discovery.
