COVINGTON, Ga. — The mother of a Cousins Middle School student recently was charged with violating state law prohibiting weapons in a school safety zone after allegedly dropping a handgun on the floor of a school bus while trying to break up a fight.

Michelle Alexis Robertson, 47, of Covington was charged with Carrying a Weapon in a School Safety Zone as a License Holder, a misdemeanor, after the incident in the River Walk Farm subdivision Aug. 25. 

Cousins Middle School Principal Atosha Logan told the school resource officer to go to the school’s bus ramp to investigate “a possible issue with an irate student getting off of a school bus,” the officer reported.

She later found that a parent had entered the school bus to intervene in an argument between the student, who is her son, and another male student while it was stopped on Sagebrush Trail about 8:10 a.m.

“During the time the female parent was on the bus and walking towards the back of the bus where those two male students were, an item later identified as a gun fell off of the parent and onto the floor of the bus,” the officer reported. 

The parent picked up the weapon and placed it underneath her jacket under her right arm. She then told the students to stop fighting and told one of them to get off of the bus before she also exited, a report stated.

Robertson reportedly turned herself in at the Newton County Detention Center and was later released on bond.

Spokeswoman Sherrie Partee said weapons on Newton County School System property “are strictly forbidden.”

“And this includes our school buses,” she said. “As such, we reported this incident to the Newton County Sheriff’s Office right away.”