Washington, DC: Gun Found in Halloween Candy Box at KIPP DC Grow Academy in Shaw

A staff member at KIPP DC Grow Academy in Washington's Shaw neighborhood found a gun inside a box of Halloween candy on Thursday, October 29, while preparing treats to hand out to some of the youngest students in the city, school officials and D.C. police said.

The staff member at the school's Shaw Campus found the firearm while preparing to give out candy from the box one day before Halloween, KIPP DC Grow Academy officials told FOX 5 DC. Staff followed safety procedures, secured the firearm and called D.C. police, who responded to the school in the 400 block of P Street, Northwest around 2:50 p.m. FOX 5 reported on Friday that the gun was a loaded 9mm Glock.

No student touched the gun

The school said no students came into contact with the firearm before it was turned over to police, and no injuries were reported. Families were notified. No arrests were made, and the incident remains under investigation. It is still unclear who the gun belongs to or how it ended up inside a box of candy, FOX 5 reported.

Parents press for answers on Friday

Parents arriving at the school for parent-teacher conferences on Friday told FOX 5 they wanted more detail from administrators. "The email we got just said they were distributing some candy and that they found a gun," parent William Lee told FOX 5. "No students knew about it. Administrators took care of it, but that was that. I haven't heard anything since, but we have parent-teacher conferences today, so I'm coming up here, and I was gonna ask the administration about it."

Another parent backed the school's handling of the discovery. "They immediately followed protocol that was required, so I'm trusting that, hopefully, that everything was done the way it was supposed to have been done," the parent told FOX 5.

Second school gun case in the region this week

The discovery was the second firearm incident at a school in the Washington region this week. On Monday, October 26, a teacher was arrested in Manassas Park, Virginia, after a loaded handgun was found in a middle school parking lot, and all four of the city's public schools closed for the day. According to court documents cited by FOX 5, Manassas Park High School art teacher Veronica Gooch-Ray, 31, told police she dropped the loaded handgun in the parking lot on Saturday while moving belongings to her car and did not realize it was missing until a fellow staff member found it on Monday. She was charged with felony possession of a firearm on school property, released on bail and placed on administrative leave, FOX 5 reported. The Manassas Park case is separate from the Shaw investigation, and police in D.C. have announced no link between the two.

The candy box discovery comes one day before Halloween, when schools across the District hand out treats to young children. D.C. police have not said whether they have identified the gun's owner, and KIPP DC has not announced any arrests or disciplinary action connected to the investigation.