BENTON CITY -- Students from Kiona-Benton City Elementary School had their backpacks searched and were interviewed by the school's resource officer after a neighbor told their bus driver that a student had a gun on a bus Wednesday morning.

No gun was found, but Superintendent Rom Castilleja said one of the boys on the bus had been playing with a Nerf toy gun at his bus stop and ran it back into his house when the bus came.

The neighbor heard the boy playing with the toy but thought it sounded like a gun, Castilleja said. When the bus arrived, the neighbor ran up and informed the driver of her suspicions.

The bus driver talked to the students, confiscated their backpacks, informed the resource officer, who is a Benton County Sheriff's deputy, and drove the bus to meet him at the Kiona-Benton City High School parking lot, according to a release from the district.

Along with riding on the bus until it reached the elementary school, the deputy searched the bus after students were dropped off for class.