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The woman, Deborah Farley, 53, was charged with criminal possession of a weapon and endangering the welfare of a child along with several other weapons-related charges.

Ms. Farley, according to the police, admitted on Friday morning that she had placed a handgun, ammunition and a flare gun in her son's Batman backpack Wednesday night and then forgot to take them out before he went to school the next morning.

The child, according to the police, did not know he was bringing the weapon to school, though he discovered that there was a gun in his bag before school officials were alerted and the weapon was recovered by the authorities.

While the police gave a detailed account of the mother's statement, the boy's father, Walter Orozco, 56, denied that either he or his wife owned a gun and maintained that they had no idea how a weapon could have ended up in the boy's bag.

"We've been living together for 11 years," Mr. Orozco said on Friday morning. "We never had a gun."

Mr. Orozco said he spoke to his son, who told him he discovered the gun in his bag but did not know how it got there.

By the father's account, the episode could have had a much more tragic ending, since the child felt bullied at school and often did not want to go to class.

"They called him sissy and white boy," Mr. Orozco said, adding: "He didn't want to go to school. He fakes like he's coughing when he gets up in the morning."

"We always complained, but the school didn't do anything," he said.

The police gave a very different version of events.

According to the police, Ms. Farley told detectives she was out walking the streets of Queens late Wednesday night, carrying her son's backpack, with the gun and ammunition inside. She had also put a flare gun in the bag.

She forgot to remove the items when she returned home, and the next morning her son grabbed his bag and went off to class at Wave Preparatory Elementary School in Far Rockaway.

Ms. Farley soon realized that she had left the gun in the bag, the police said, and rushed to the school, hoping to retrieve it without attracting attention. She signed the child out on the pretext that he had a dental appointment, according to the police.

But when Ms. Farley made a quick search of the bag and did not immediately see the gun, she asked her son what he did with it.

"Thinking his mother was referring to the flare gun he had already given to another youngster in the school and not realizing himself that there was a handgun still in the bottom of his backpack," the boy said he gave it to a friend, said Paul J. Browne, the chief spokesman for the police.

"With that, the mother told the principal, who alerted school safety officers, implemented a lockdown, and located the other boy in one of the school's second-floor classrooms, where the unloaded Orion flare gun was found in his backpack," Mr. Browne said.

A more thorough examination of Ms. Farley's son's backpack led to a Phoenix Arms .22 caliber semiautomatic pistol, a magazine with 10 rounds of .22 caliber ammunition, and 14 additional rounds in a plastic bag.

Ms. Farley, who has four sons -- ages 27, 21, 9 and 7 -- initially told the authorities that her 9-year-old son, who was at home, saw his 7-year-old brother take a gun to school.

Ms. Farley provided a different account early Friday morning after detectives confronted her with additional evidence found when they searched her home, including more .22 caliber bullets. They also said they had evidence that she had kept an unlicensed handgun in her home on Cornega Avenue. In the home, the police said they found seven small bags of marijuana.

The 7- and 9-year-old boys were taken from the residence into protective care, the police said.

The discovery of the weapon at the school on Thursday set off a nervous few hours after the principal went on the intercom to say that the school was being locked down and that they were to remain in their classrooms.

"I thought we were going to get killed," said Javier Ferrufino, an 11-year-old in fifth grade. "We went to the back of the classroom. I hid with my friend behind some computers."

When parents arrived in the afternoon to pick up their children, more than a dozen police officers were at the school.

A notice given to parents said: "Due to an incident today there was need to secure all students in their classrooms. This procedure is called a lockdown. Our school-based support team is prepared to assist you with any emotional needs as a result of today's lockdown."

Giovanni Dennis, an 8-year-old third grader, said he hid under his teacher's desk after the principal announced the lockdown. His mother, Cecelia Dennis, said she was upset that she did not know about the lockdown until she arrived to get Giovanni. "I think they did a good job of locking down the school," she said. "But they could have notified the parents earlier."

Lawrence Clark, 49, went to pick up his stepdaughter Shakyla Howard, 8, at 4:15. "I live 30 seconds from the school, and I just found out about this five minutes ago from my brother-in-law's Facebook page. And he lives in Utica," Mr. Clark said. "This school sends out texts and e-mails about all this stupid stuff, like parent-teacher conferences. But I didn't find out about this until just now?"

Shakyla said: "They made us turn off the lights and hide behind the teacher's desk. I almost cried. I was afraid we were going to get shot."