BLACK RIVER, St Elizabeth — Child Protection and Family Services Agency (CPFSA) says the seven-year-old boy in whose bag a sub-machine gun was found at his school on Thursday is now in its care.

In a statement on Friday, the agency said the child’s siblings have also been taken into its care.

Chief executive officer of CPFSA Laurette Adams-Thomas said the children will be receiving counselling.

“Any child who has open access to a firearm — or moreover is found with one in their possession — has had their well-being jeopardised and is considered to be in need of protection. As soon as this incident was brought to our attention we launched our first responders’ team to the location to ensure that the well-being of the child as well as the other children in the home were safeguarded,” she said.

“The child and his siblings have since been taken into the care of the CPFSA, and they will receive the necessary counselling and psychosocial support,” she added.

Adams-Thomas also reminded parents of their responsibility to ensure that their children do not have access to dangerous or illegal items, and to check their schools bags regularly to further ensure that they are not carrying these items with them to school.

“It is imperative that parents be more vigilant about checking their children’s bags before they go to school to prevent them from taking dangerous or inappropriate items with them — be it weapons, pornographic materials or drug-related items. These things do not only put your child at risk but can also endanger the lives of other children and teachers at the school,” she said.

On Thursday, police questioned the child’s 32-year-old father after the sub-machine gun was found inside the boy’s bag at his school in northern St Elizabeth.

A highly placed source told the Jamaica Observer that the child, who is in grade one at a primary school on the fringes of the Cockpit Country, revealed that the weapon belonged to a family member.

The Observer was told that by mid-morning Thursday the police, acting on information, went to the school in a remote section of St Elizabeth, near the border with St James, where they searched the child’s bag and found the weapon.

The constabulary posted a photo of the weapon on its social media platforms on Thursday afternoon. The weapon had the initials JE carved into it.