MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – Robbinsdale school officials are asking parents to talk with their children about unsafe situations after a bus driver asked a middle school student to pick up something on the side of the road. That something, it turns out, was a gun.

Tia Clasen, a spokesperson for Robbinsdale schools, said the incident happened around 8 a.m. Thursday on route #433. The bus driver noticed something on the side of the road and asked a seventh grader to get off the bus and see what it was. When it was learned the something was a gun, the driver asked the student to bring it to him. The driver then took the gun and reported the incident to his superior at Robbinsdale Middle School. The driver reportedly said he was taking the weapon to the bus company’s dispatch office.

It is not known whether the gun was loaded, Clasen said. It was picked up near the intersection of 25th Avenue and Irving Avenue North in Minneapolis.

Robbinsdale Police and the bus company, Minnesota Transportation Network, are investigating the incident. The name of the bus driver was not given, although the bus company said Thursday evening that the driver who discovered the gun is no longer an employee.

In a letter to parents, Robbinsdale Middle School principal John Cook commended the student for being respectful to the driver. After all, the school teaches children to follow the instructions of adults whose job it is to watch over them. However, the letter said “this was not a safe situation” and that the school is working with police and the bus company to address it appropriately.