Woman charged after son brings gun to elementary school

A Carol Stream woman whose child brought a gun to school is being detained pretrial.

Betty Hughes, 27, was not supposed to have a handgun, according to the DuPage County State’s Attorney’s Office, because she is a felon.

Hughes is charged with felony unlawful use or possession of a weapon by a felon and misdemeanor contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

According to a DuPage prosecutor’s petition for pretrial detention, Hughes’ 9-year-old son last Friday threatened to shoot and kill another student at his elementary school. Court records did not specify the school.

On Wednesday, another student told school officials he had seen a handgun in the boy’s backpack, according to the petition.

Police found a .40-caliber Taurus handgun in the backpack. It had one round in the ammunition magazine.

The son told police he had gotten the gun out of his mother’s makeup box, located in a dresser in a bedroom he and his mother share, according to the petition.

The petition stated that the boy and his mother lived with his grandmother. The grandmother can’t own a gun because she has a felony conviction.

Hughes was convicted of armed robbery in a 2018 case, according to the petition.

Her 9-year-old son brought a loaded .40-caliber Taurus handgun to his school on Wednesday, according to a news release. Police found the gun, with one round in the ammunition magazine, in the child’s backpack.

Hughes lives in the 500 block of Alton Court.