‘I’m scared for my kids’: Mother speaks out after gun found at school

MADISON, Ala. ( WHNT ) — A mother is expressing frustration after school officials say communication protocols failed when a Liberty Middle School student was found with a loaded gun Thursday.

Dr. Ed Nichols, the superintendent of Madison City Schools, released a statement Friday detailing where mistakes and missteps were made in the process.

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"While the School Resource Officer (SRO) was informed of the investigation on Wednesday evening and the school-level administration received information of the investigation on Thursday morning, the failure to communicate promptly between the involved parties resulted in several hours of delay before the school administration took action. Unfortunately, established communication protocols were not followed."

Dr. Ed Nichols, Superintendent Madison City Schools

"I'm scared for my kids," a concerned mother, Kendra Mabbitt, said. "I feel like, you know, there's protocols put in place for this type of situation. And had the protocols been followed, it wouldn't have gotten this far."

Mabbitt said her children had an encounter outside of their home with the same middle schooler the night before the arrest at school.

"And the kid pulled out a gun, put the clip in it, cocked it back and told her she better start running," Mabbitt said.

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Mabbitt said after her son and daughter told her what happened, she called the police and confronted the boy outside.

"I physically saw him with the gun," Mabbitt said. "And that's what I told the police. I was like, this child had a gun. I know for a fact, I saw it. He stood outside my building for 10 minutes with it until he heard the police sirens. And then when he heard the police sirens, he took off."

She said officers did not find the gun on the child when they arrived and told her they did not have a warrant to search the apartment. However, she said officers took steps to warn officials. She remembers hearing police at the scene calling the SRO Wednesday.

Following up, Mabbitt said she called administrators at Liberty Middle School more than once the next morning to make sure they were aware of what happened. She said her calls went unanswered until about noon, nearly halfway through the school day.

"I mean, this kid was in school for hours, hours, with this gun," Mabbitt said. "He rode the bus with this gun."

Mabbitt said she is looking to press charges against the middle school and will work with Madison Police moving forward.

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She wants increased security at Liberty Middle School and more transparency in the future.

"They do need to have some way of detecting whether or not a child has something in their bookbag," Mabbitt said. "Or else, put in place some kind of rule where they can make sure that this doesn't happen again."

The middle schooler is in custody and was charged with certain persons forbidden to possess a firearm.

Madison Police declined to discuss the incident.

Madison City Schools and Mabbitt said there will be a public meeting to address what happened and discuss future security protocol. The date of that meeting has not been released.