WINDSOR – A Bertie High School student suspended earlier this week after a rifle was found in a vehicle he drove to campus has now been charged with a crime.

Bertie County Sheriff John Holley said that 17-year-old Dallas White of Windsor was arrested and charged on Thursday with felony possession of a weapon on school grounds.

White, a senior who was scheduled to graduate on June 10, was released into the custody of his mother.

Holley said Deputy Dan Flores, a School Resource Officer at Bertie High, was patrolling the BHS student parking lot on Tuesday when he noticed a box of ammunition in the dashboard of a pick-up truck. A further search of that truck revealed a .22 caliber rifle in the cab.

“We talked with the young man and he said the truck belonged to his father,” Sheriff Holley said.

According to school policy, a student bringing a weapon of any sort onto school property automatically faces 365 days of expulsion from school. For White, that suspension took effect immediately.

Bertie School System officials assured parents that at no time were any students or staff in danger from the weapon.