'Leave and get away': East Wake HS junior suspended after running from school in middle of lockdown

RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) -- Naomi Miller's daughter took off running Monday from East Wake High School when there was a gun reported on campus.

Later that night her daughter was suspended.

"For me as a parent, I told my daughter to leave and get away," Miller said. "Why would you want your child to stay in an environment if they're able to get away?"

Wake County Schools said a fight prompted a lockdown, and there was a weapon on campus even though it was only a BB gun.

They couldn't comment specifically on Miller's daughter's case. They tell Eyewitness News that a lockdown means students need to stay where they are, and leaving in the middle of one would be "inappropriate."

Miller left work to pick up her daughter and her son as quickly as she could. Her son is also a student at East Wake but he had already gone off campus.

"You're penalizing her twice instead of trying to come to a resolution? How can we fix this? Why are these guns even in school?" she said.

In the past week, ABC11 received two other reports of lockdowns at schools in the area at Mac Williams in Cumberland County and Hoke High School.

Two weeks ago, officers in Erwin found a rifle and loads of ammunition in someone's car in the parking lot of Triton High School. That happened the same day someone shot and killed five people in a mass shooting in East Raleigh.

"She did do something right, she didn't do anything wrong," said Naomi, who wants to create a national registry to better monitor kids in the middle of an active shooter incident.

Her daughter is on the dance team and has to sit out the first two games of the basketball season as part of her punishment.