11-year-old found with unloaded gun at elementary school

Parents at Myakka Elementary School are shaking their heads after a phone call alerted them to a weapon on campus. 

Manatee deputies said an 11-year-old boy had a gun in his backpack.  It was unloaded, but they don't know why he had the gun or how he got it. 

"Who knows what could have happened! I was in Arcadia and I started heading back this way and his teacher wrote me and she had told me everything was fine," said parent Nikki Allman. 

She breathed a sigh of relief after learning her child was OK.  

"It's terrifying,” she continued.  “You're supposed to feel safe with them going to school and here somebody is bringing a gun to school.”

Another student saw the gun and did exactly what they were taught to do. 

"We actually talk to students about that if you see something or hear something, make sure you notify someone at that school because you just never know," said Dave Bristow with the Manatee County Sheriff's Office. 

Deputies arrested the 11-year-old. 

Parents are left in shock and questioning why. 

"It's sad being out here in Myakka City to know somebody has done something to cause this child to do something like this," said another parent.