Three 15-year-old male students passed two loaded handguns — a .38-caliber and a .22-caliber — on a Hempfield Area High School bus and at the school Monday, state police said.
Students who witnessed the exchanges contacted school administrators, who alerted state police about 11:40 a.m. The school was put in lockdown for the remainder of the day.
According to police, students told school officials they saw one student give a gun to another student on the morning school bus. The same student gave another gun to another student in a school bathroom, witnesses told school officials.
Authorities did not identify the students involved or on which bus the first incident took place.
School resource officers found the weapons in the students’ backpacks during a search, police said.
Students are only subject to metal detector wanding upon entering school if the district suspects something, Superintendent Tammy Wolicki said. The wands were not used Monday morning, she said.
The school was put into lockdown during the investigation until about 3 p.m., which is about 15 minutes after normal dismissal. Students remained in their seventh period classes. They were later moved to the field house on campus while the school was searched by police and K-9 teams. They were allowed to return to the building to retrieve belongings, but after-school events were canceled.
No additional weapons were found, police said.
There was no reason to believe the students involved were planning an attack, state Trooper Cliff Greenfield said.
He said police believe the students were in contact Sunday and chose to use the school as a place to exchange the guns.
Police have “very good information” on how the guns got into the hands of the student who brought them to school, Greenfield said. He could not confirm whether the students exchanged money for the guns.
The three students have not been charged with crimes and are being treated as juveniles. Greenfield did not confirm whether the three boys are in custody, but said troopers have been in contact with their families.
They will not be attending the high school in the immediate future pending further review, Wolicki said.
According to Wolicki, students will attend school as normal Tuesday, with an increased state police presence on campus.
The district will check students with metal detecting wands before they enter the high school building and will discuss installing temporary metal detectors at entrances.
School counselors will be available at the high school for any students who need help, and the district will seek additional support if there is demand, she added.
“We want every child to feel safe coming to school,” Wolicki said, noting students remained calm throughout the day, according to teachers.
One parent, Jarrod Mcadoo, whose son attends the high school, said Monday evening his son called him around 11:15 or 11:30 a.m. about the incident. Shortly afterward, he received a text and an email from the school with information that the situation was under control. The message asked parents not to come to the site as no students were being released.
“I think they do a pretty good job here,” Mcadoo said. “The school police do a pretty good job. In fact, they’ve stopped my wife up here before when she’s walked the dogs during lunch just to make sure she was OK. In all my dealings with the security up here, they seem to be pretty tight. The school communicates very well on issues.”