Knife Seized on 1st Day of Schools’ Weapon Screening

One student was arrested and his pocketknife was confiscated when hand-held metal detectors were used for the first time Friday to randomly screen youngsters for weapons on two Los Angeles Unified School District campuses.

The knife was uncovered during a midmorning weapons check at Belmont High School, where approximately 70 of the almost 3,000 students on campus were scanned with the detectors. The student with the knife, a 17-year-old 10th-grader, was arrested by police and suspended from school.

At MacClay Junior High School in Pacoima, almost one-third of the 900 students on campus were scanned for weapons by district police officers. Entire classrooms were chosen for screenings at the beginning and end of two class periods.

“We did one (group) in the morning and one in the afternoon,” said John Liechty, the director of the district’s middle schools division. “We explained to the kids what was going on, what we were doing, then proceeded to go through the process. All things considered, it went smoothly.

“They’re 11-, 12- and 13-year-old kids,” Liechty said. “I don’t want to make it sound like it’s not disruptive because it is. But we were able to give them a little orientation to what was going on so it didn’t frighten them. And it’s obviously something we have to do to ensure their safety and protection.”

At Belmont, near downtown, about 40 students were picked for the weapons screenings as they passed through one hallway on the giant campus on their way to nutrition break. “We selected every fifth youngster passing through this specific hall, and took them into the auditorium foyer where they were scanned,” said Phil Nassief, an administrator with the district’s senior high division.

An hour later, classrooms in one wing of the building were selected, with two students from each class screened. Those 30 students were taken to an empty classroom to ensure privacy.

“The kids were very calm, they took it very well,” Nassief said. “They weren’t frightened by the process and they weren’t upset.”

The district last week reversed its longstanding policy against the routine use of metal detectors to check for weapons in the wake of the fatal classroom shooting of a Fairfax High School student.