A 15-year-old student is facing charges after a video began circulating showing him pulling a handgun with an extended magazine from inside his jacket at Colleton County High School. Deputies say the student never actually brought the weapon into the school building — instead, it was recovered from an unlocked car in the student parking lot, a vehicle that reportedly had no connection to the teen.
The response began after a school resource officer received reports that a student was allegedly in possession of a firearm on campus, according to abcnews4.com. Deputies were called to the school after a video, which reportedly depicted the student pulling the handgun from inside his jacket, began circulating. The Colleton County Sheriff's Office said the footage showed a student with a firearm at the school, per the outlet's reporting.
The school's principal was able to identify the 15-year-old shown in the video, and deputies located and detained him soon after, according to counton2.com. The teen reportedly told investigators the video had actually been recorded inside the school's field house, and detectives determined that he did not enter the main school building while carrying the gun.
Gun Recovered From a Car That Wasn't His
The student reportedly said he had placed the firearm inside a vehicle parked in the student lot, and deputies later recovered it from an unlocked car there. The weapon was identified as a 9mm handgun fitted with an extended magazine, the same report notes. That vehicle was reportedly not associated with the student.
The teen was charged with having a weapon on school grounds and with simple possession of marijuana, first offense. He was transported to the South Carolina Department of Juvenile Justice in Columbia, according to live5news.com. Investigators say the case remains active as detectives work to determine how the juvenile came into possession of the firearm in the first place, and the sheriff's office has indicated that additional charges may still be filed.
Part of a Broader Pattern Across South Carolina Schools
The Colleton County incident lands amid a steady stream of weapons turning up in South Carolina schools this year. In August, a 6-year-old was found carrying an assault pistol loaded with lethal .300 Blackout rounds at JP Thomas Elementary School in Richland County, while a 16-year-old at Richland Northeast High School walked through a metal detector with a handgun holding a 17-round magazine in his bookbag, according to thestate.com. A 40-year-old woman was also charged separately with carrying a weapon onto a Richland County high school campus around the same time.
Statewide numbers suggest these cases are not isolated. From 2022 to 2025, the Charleston County School District reported 465 weapon offenses and the Greenville County School District reported 363, a difference of 102, according to live5news.com. Six students were expelled from Charleston County schools for bringing weapons onto campus between 2023 and 2025, the station reported.
Older state figures paint a similarly troubling picture. South Carolina schools reported finding weapons on campus 1,089 times over three school years from 2014 to 2017, and schools across the state confiscated 88 firearms during the 2015-16 school year, including 46 handguns, according to postandcourier.com. That outlet also noted the state's weapon-tracking data has long been plagued by reporting and data-entry problems, including 164 Greenville County violations that were initially miscoded in spreadsheets submitted to the state.
What South Carolina Law Says About Guns on Campus
South Carolina law treats any firearm brought onto school grounds as a violation regardless of whether the weapon is operational, according to a South Carolina Court of Appeals opinion. In a comparable case involving a Wilson High School student found with a gun and nine bullets in his pocket, the court upheld a delinquency finding under South Carolina Code section 16-23-430, the statute governing weapons on school property.
