PORT ANGELES — A Port Angeles High School student will appear in juvenile court Monday after authorities said they found a .32-caliber handgun in his backpack.
The weapon was confiscated from the 16-year-old teenager without incident shortly before noon Friday, said School Resource Officer Sky Sexton of the Port Angeles Police Department.
Authorities would not name the 11th-grader.
He was incarcerated at the Clallam County juvenile facility Friday for investigation of first-degree theft, theft of a firearm, second-degree unlawful possession of a weapon, and possessing a dangerous weapon on school grounds, authorities said.
He will have his first appearance at 1:15 p.m. Monday in county Juvenile Court, Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Tracey Lassus said.
Lassus said she will make a charging decision Monday after she receives police reports on the incident and before the teen appears before Court Commissioner Brent Basden.
Sexton said the boy was nonchalant about bringing the gun to school.
“He didn’t have a reason why,” Sexton said.
“He said he brought it because he thought it was cool.
“I don’t believe there was any threat to any specific student or the student body as a whole, other than that he brought it to school.”
School authorities were alerted shortly before noon that the teen had the weapon, Sexton said.
The teen asked a male classmate if he wanted to see the gun in the auto body classroom while other students were in the auto body shop, Sexton said.
Sextons said the classmate told teacher Dan Helpenstell about the gun, and Helpenstell notified School Security Officer Kelsey Lane, who works in the same office at the high school as Sexton.
School officials walked up to the student as he sat at his desk in a classroom emptied of students.
With the teen’s permission, Lane reached into his red backpack, where she found a change of clothes, a handgun clip with one bullet in it, and an empty, older model CZ .32-caliber handgun, Sexton said.
“He really didn’t have any reaction one way or the other,” Sexton said. “He was real matter-of-fact about the whole situation.”
Sexton said he believes the gun might have been stolen, possibly from a family member.
Port Angeles Schools Superintendent Marc Jackson said that after the student was turned over to Sexton, the district sent out a robo-call to all parents in the school district.
“We wanted them to know the youth had possession of a firearm and that he had at that point been taken into custody of the police,” Jackson said.
“It was very unfortunate, but these things do happen.”
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at pgottlieb@ peninsuladailynews.com.
