Student arrested after gun scare
A Pasadena school student was arrested Friday on suspicion of bringing a gun to campus, police said.
The arrest occurred Friday afternoon, hours after a student reported that a classmate had brought a weapon to Blair International Baccalaureate School. Police and administrators ordered a lockdown of the 1,200-student campus shortly before 9:30 a.m. The lockdown continued through most of the day.
The suspect, a male student whose identity was not released, was arrested in the afternoon and led from the campus in handcuffs, said Pasadena Police Lt. Tom Pederson.
Police did not find the weapon but made the arrest based on witness statements, Pederson said. There were no gunshots reported.
A crowd of parents had gathered at the school. Many were especially nervous following a string of recent shootings from Oxnard to Los Angeles.
“There’s a lot of stuff going on, like that shooting in L.A. You have to worry every time there’s something,” said Wanda Williams, whose daughter is a sophomore at the school. “You can’t take anything lightly.”
Students were kept in classrooms before being led to the gym, their hands clasped over their heads, where they were searched. They were eventually released to their parents’ custody.
Some parents who gathered by an entrance to the school, in the 1200 block of South Marengo Avenue, were upset that the school did not contact them until early afternoon and that some students weren’t allowed to use their cellphones.
School PTA president Darlene Kopplin Easley said she believed Blair was a safe campus. “We have not had these types of incidents” in the past, she said. “My son will be back here Monday.”
molly.hennessy-fiske@ latimes.com
Times staff writer Jason Song contributed to this report.
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