A 15-year-old Pearl-Cohn High School sophomore was charged Monday morning after school staff say the campus's weapon detection system flagged a 9mm handgun tucked inside his backpack as he walked through the entryway during arrival. Officers recovered the firearm, which the ATF had listed as stolen, and the teen now faces charges including theft of a firearm, carrying a gun on school property, and juvenile handgun possession.
According to an official Metropolitan Nashville Police Department media release, the student passed through Pearl-Cohn's Evolv weapon detection system as students arrived on campus, at which point staff flagged the backpack and officers recovered the gun. The incident was first reported by News Channel 5 Nashville, which detailed the charges now facing the sophomore.
A Campus Still Reeling From Tragedy
The detection comes just ten days after 16-year-old Cameron Frierson was fatally shot in a drive-by on Herman Street directly outside Pearl-Cohn High School following a Friday night football game on August 21, according to a report from the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department. Police said shots were fired from a white sedan as crowds dispersed after the game, and Hoodline previously covered the community's grief in the days following the shooting.
That backdrop of loss makes Monday's scanner catch land differently on a campus that has now seen a shooting death outside its doors and a firearm intercepted inside them within the span of two weeks. It is not the first time weapons have surfaced at Pearl-Cohn, either. In February 2024, two Pearl-Cohn seniors were arrested after random administrative searches uncovered two loaded 9mm handguns on campus, one inside a backpack and another, reported stolen, inside a glove box in the parking lot, per Metro police records.
Part of a Districtwide Rollout
Pearl-Cohn's scanner is one piece of a much larger safety push across Metro Nashville Public Schools. The district completed installation of Evolv AI-driven weapon detection systems across all district high schools and middle schools on May 14, according to a report from WSMV. That rollout followed a $1.25 million annual contract the Metro Nashville Board of Education unanimously approved in February 2025 to lease and install the scanners districtwide, an expansion of a pilot program launched after a fatal shooting at Antioch High School in January 2025, as reported by the Nashville Scene.
The technology has already shown results elsewhere in the district. Officials reported in March that the newly installed scanners had detected six firearms across MNPS campuses since going live, with district leaders describing the scanners as one part of a multi-layered security approach. Just twelve days before the Pearl-Cohn incident, a 16-year-old student at East Nashville Magnet High School was caught ditching a backpack containing a loaded, stolen handgun near the cafeteria loading dock, a gun that had been reported stolen from an unlocked vehicle back in March.
Stolen Guns and Unlocked Cars
The Pearl-Cohn case fits a pattern Nashville police have flagged repeatedly this year. As of mid-August, the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department reported that 66% of all stolen firearms in Davidson County, 401 out of 602 total, were taken from unlocked automobiles. Investigators have routinely warned that guns stolen from cars are linked to juvenile offenses, and the ATF-flagged 9mm recovered from the Pearl-Cohn student's backpack fits that same pipeline.
What the Teen Now Faces
Bringing a firearm onto school property in Tennessee is classified as a Class E felony under state law, carrying statutory maximum penalties of up to six years in prison and a fine of up to $3,000, according to Justia Law. Because the Pearl-Cohn student is a juvenile, his handgun possession charge falls under a separate statute governing delinquent acts, which carries mandatory penalties including up to 100 hours of community service and a one-year suspension of driving privileges, with enhanced dispositions possible for any subsequent violation.
The case adds to a string of similar incidents across Metro Nashville schools this year, including a parent caught with a gun at Glencliff Elementary and another East Nashville student flagged by a scanner in March. District officials have not indicated any change to arrival screening procedures at Pearl-Cohn following Monday's detection, and no additional details about the sophomore's identity have been released.
