It happened at Magnolia Junior High School. Authorities say the child was set up by his father's girlfriend.
"Her explanation to me was that she wanted to see my son get into trouble," said the boy's father.
To protect his 13-year-old son, the father asked us not to show his face or identify him, but says he is still in shock by what his former live-in girlfriend, Heather Hodges, 26, is accused of doing. The Montgomery County Precinct 5 Constable's Office says Hodges confessed to planting a gun on her boyfriend's eighth grade son and then sending him off to school.
"You're facing down the barrel is what you're doing if you're willing to go that far," the father said.
The father says Hodges, who has two small children of her own from a previous relationship, had a somewhat rocky relationship with his son and wasn't happy with him last week when deputy constables say she secretly went through the 13-year-old's backpack, first removing his deodorant and his cologne. She then allegedly placed an unloaded pistol inside his son's book bag before the boy went to class.
But authorities say to make sure the boy was caught, Hodges took it a step further. With surveillance cameras watching, authorities say she pulled up to a convenience store pay phone and placed an anonymous call to Magnolia ISD, warning them about the gun and naming her boyfriend's son, who was later detained.
The father said, "Their relationship wasn't great and so he automatically was like, 'It was Heather that called.'"
Authorities say after talking to the teen and reviewing surveillance video, Hodges was arrested.
"That's hard to get past," said Hodges' ex-boyfriend. "It's hard to look at it and say, 'OK, I forgive you, oh you made a mistake.' That's a huge mistake to make."
In a statement, Magnolia ISD officials state in part: "It was determined by Precinct 5 of the Montgomery County Constable's Office and Montgomery County Sheriff's Department detectives that the student had no knowledge of the gun in his backpack. The student in question has been exonerated of all wrongdoing."
Hodges is being held in the Montgomery County Jail on $20,000 bond. She's charged with unlawfully carrying a weapon on restricted premises and unlawfully transferring a handgun to someone under age 18.
Since the incident last week, the father moved away from Magnolia to remove his son from the situation.
