The arrest was made at 10:48am, roughly 10 minutes after campus-based Houston Independent School District police officers received a tip from the Houston Police Department that the student may have a gun.
Houston police were investigating an allegation that the student used the weapon to threaten an individual off campus on Tuesday afternoon. The HISD police officers took the student into custody without incident and confiscated the weapon after searching him.
The student told HISD police he was carrying the weapon to protect himself from gang members in the neighborhood surrounding the school.
Sterling High School parents are being informed about the incident by phone today, officials say, but we spoke with at least one mother at the school who hadn't heard.
"I'm a little upset because I haven't gotten a call or anything as yet," she said. "Now that I'm here, I'm hearing all this."
"This is my fourth year here, I'm a senior. Nothing like this ever happened before," a student told Eyewitness News.
The student is a juvenile and his name is not being released. Appropriate disciplinary action is being taken, and the incident has been referred to the Harris County District Attorney's Office for criminal prosecution.
