SAN CLEMENTE : 2 Held for Having Gun at High School

Two freshmen at San Clemente High School were arrested on campus Thursday after one was caught with an unloaded, small-caliber handgun and an ammunition clip in her purse.

An instructional aide spotted the gun in the purse of a 15-year-old freshman and alerted school officials, police said.

When the 15-year-old was brought to the school office for questioning, she told police officers that she had subsequently given the gun to another student, a 14-year-old girl, because she was afraid of getting caught with the weapon, said Sgt. Hector Rivera of the San Clemente Police Department.

“The second girl was brought to the office and willingly gave us the gun,” Rivera said. “Fortunately, it was never used in a threatening manner.”

The 14-year-old said she was instructed by the older girl to pass the gun on to a male student, who turned out to have been absent from school Thursday. Both girls were arrested for possessing a firearm on a school campus and were later released into the custody of their parents.

The case will be turned over to the juvenile division of the Orange County district attorney’s office, Rivera said.

San Clemente High School Principal James Krembas described the morning incident as “shocking.”

“We haven’t had weapons on our campus in the past, but we dealt with this in a swift and professional way,” said Krembas.

Jacqueline Price, a spokeswoman for the Capistrano Unified School District, said Krembas and Supt. James A. Fleming are recommending that the two students be expelled from the district, along with the 16-year-old male student who was allegedly involved in the incident. He was suspended from school but not arrested.

“We don’t want these students in our schools, but we’ll look for alternative placement for them,” Price said.