Weapons Expulsion Rule Hailed : Schools: Most people interviewed favor crackdown on guns. But some worry about those students who will be forced out.

Like most teachers, students, and administrators interviewed Tuesday, Ignacio Garcia favors a new policy to expel any pupil in sixth grade and higher who brings a gun to a Los Angeles school.

“I’m all for it,” said Garcia, assistant principal at Belmont High School near downtown. “Needless to say, in a school setting, safety comes first.” Garcia could recall no gun incident at Belmont during the last six years, although there have been some involving knives.

But at the same time, some officials warned that the rule adopted Monday by the Los Angeles Board of Education may mean a sharp increase in the number of troubled young people forced out of school and possibly into criminal careers on the street. Amid sharp budget cuts, the district is unlikely to start counseling programs for those students.

Chatsworth High School Principal Donna B. Smith said she is concerned that some expelled students may be in effect abandoned by the district. But she called the board’s new policy “a good thing and a reasonable move” in spreading the message “that campus is no place for violence.”

Last year, the 610,000-student Los Angeles school district had 438 students involved in weapons possession or assaults with a weapon. Seventeen of those students were expelled for at least two semesters, according to Hector Madrigal, the district’s discipline coordinator. The rest received other punishment, including transfer to another school or suspension for shorter periods.

The new policy takes away much leeway from administrators and psychologists who judge such cases and who in the past voted for expulsion only if they felt there was no hope for the student’s rehabilitation.

“It’s going to make a big change,” said Madrigal, who estimated that more than half of last year’s cases would have led to full expulsion under the new rules. Students who assault someone else on campus in a way likely to cause serious injury will also be expelled.

An officer in the Los Angeles Police Department’s juvenile bureau described the previous case-by-case handling of school gun incidents as a failure and dismissed arguments that the new policy will turn borderline students into hardened gang members. “The kids who are (bringing guns to school) are going to be at risk anyway and they are probably not going to school much,” said the officer, who asked not to be identified.

In interviews Tuesday, most students praised the expulsion rules, although some, such as South Gate High student Jesse Gomez, worry that it might hurt students who carry guns for protection in tough areas. Gomez said discipline should be based “on the situation.”

Under the new rules, expulsions can be overturned by the board and are effective for two semesters, after which a student can apply for reinstatement. Possession of knives or BB guns are not grounds for expulsion unless used in an assault.

Marc Hodson, a dean in charge of discipline at Belmont, said he is glad that the school board drew a distinction between a gun and a knife because students who carry screwdrivers or knives for nonviolent uses should be given a chance to explain why. But he strongly supports automatic expulsion for having a gun, saying, “There’s no place for firearms.”

The new Los Angeles rule appears to be tougher than those in some other big cities. According to a spokesman for New York City public schools, where metal detectors have been installed recently at some campuses, weapons offenders are usually suspended if they are older than 17 and sent to an alternative school or home instruction program if younger. In Chicago, expulsion for gun possession is not mandatory, an official there said Tuesday.

Catherine Carey, spokeswoman for United Teachers-Los Angeles, the faculty union, said she is pleased with the board’s action, but wished the rules also applied to possession of knives. “We think the most stringent stance possible is to the greater good and protection not only of teachers but of the students, too,” she said.

Staff writer Lee Harris contributed to this story.