Triggering Alarm : Fake Guns Posing Real Dangers at High Schools

A jealous high school student, eager to stop another teen-ager from flirting with his girlfriend, warns him to stay away by opening his jacket to reveal a handgun tucked into his pants.

A teen-ager leaving campus for lunch with a carload of friends extends a pistol from the window and points it at a group of students in the parking lot.

A middle-school student, tired of the taunts and shoves from bullies on the morning bus ride, slips a gun into his waistband before boarding.

These gun threats occurred in Irvine this school year, frightening students, police and school officials--even though each of the handguns turned out to be real-looking fakes. Educators were struck by the realization that not only do schools have to worry about real guns on campus, they have to deal with students who pack look-alike handguns, believing that they are not as bad as carrying the real thing.

Schools in Irvine have confiscated seven fake handguns from students since school started in fall, the highest number reported by a school district in Orange County. A couple of years ago, simulated handguns were unheard of at Irvine schools, officials said.

The surprising increase prompted the school superintendent and the Irvine police chief to send a joint letter to parents in December warning of the dangers posed by handgun replicas. Officials in other school districts say they are catching students bringing fake guns onto campus, along with the occasional real gun and knife, though not with the frequency in Irvine schools.

In the 640,000-student Los Angeles Unified School District, officials said they confiscated about six replica handguns from students last school year, compared to more than 200 real guns taken from students at the district’s 650 schools.

Tustin school officials took one from a freshman this school year, and Huntington Beach school officials said they confiscated their first realistic-looking handgun from a high school student last week. Fake handguns also were taken from students this year in the Fullerton Joint Union High School District and the Capistrano Unified School District.

Other school districts said they do not have statistics for this year or, as in Garden Grove Unified’s case, refused to release information on weapon-related incidents.

Most school districts said they are seeing more real guns than fake ones. Santa Ana Unified School District confiscated 15 real handguns from students last school year but found only four look-alike guns.

Replicas include everything from real-looking squirt guns to BB guns to fake handguns designed to mimic models such as a Colt .45 semiautomatic.

“They look exactly like the real thing, except they don’t shoot,” said Eric Bianchi, an Irvine police investigator who handles juvenile crimes.

The realistic-looking guns can be purchased by mail from many gun catalogues, though California law prevents their sale except for theatrical use, public displays and use in military and civil defense exercises.

School officials say students who take look-a-like guns to school do so for the same reason other students take real guns--to offer an aura of protection or bravado. Other times, students carry fake guns just to show their friends.

“I think some of the kids are carrying them because they truly are scared,” Bianchi said. “Ten years ago, kids used to say: ‘I’ll beat the crap out of you.’ Nowadays they say: ‘I’m going to get my gun and kill you’ or ‘I’m gonna get my homeboys . . . and kill you.’ ”

Other times, the student takes the fake gun to school more out of naivete than a desire to threaten someone, Bianchi said. That was the case with the replica handgun taken from a Tustin high school freshman last fall.

“A student just had it as a stupid thing to do,” said Brad Lantz, director of student services for the Tustin Unified School District. “It was a ninth-grader at high school who hadn’t left the fifth-grade kind of thing.”

The Tustin student took the look-alike handgun to school and gave it to another teen-ager, who carried it around school in his belt, Lantz said. Neither student brandished it in a threatening manner, he said, but both students were disciplined.

In Huntington Beach last week, school officials took a replica handgun from a high school student who had it in his backpack. It turned out to be a cigarette lighter, said John Myers, assistant superintendent, but “it looks identical to a semiautomatic pistol.”

Huntington Beach high schools have seen other fake handguns on campus, such as BB and pellet guns, but never one that looked as real as the cigarette lighter, he said. The student did not threaten anyone with it, but was turned in by other students who saw it.

About three weeks ago at Laguna Beach High School, which has not had a gun-related incident at school, a campus supervisor saw two students handling a pistol across the street from the high school. The gun turned out to be the kind that shoots paint pellets used in recreational war games, Assistant Principal Tim Sullivan said.

“That’s real scary, too, because what kids don’t realize when they’re playing like that, someone might take them seriously, whether it’s a policeman or someone else who has a real gun,” Sullivan said.

Students caught with replica guns insist that they did nothing wrong because they were caught only with toys, said Anthony Dalessi, director of child welfare and attendance for the Santa Ana Unified School District.

“But we try to get the point across that, is it a toy to a gang member across the street or a policeman?” Dalessi said. “They don’t know it’s a toy gun from a distance. The police will be the first to tell you that. They can’t walk over and ask.”

Some of the Irvine students caught with the look-alike handguns said they chose them because they wanted others to believe that they were armed but did not want to hurt anyone, said Paul Mills, director of child welfare and attendance.

“It’s a bravado issue--’See how brave I am, I’m carrying this gun.’ ” Mills said. “Yet the inward perception is I’m not doing something as wrong by having a fake one than a real one.”

School districts do not think the same way.

As long as a fake handgun is used in a threatening manner, school district officials said they will expel students as if they were carrying the real thing. The state penal code and education code outlaw brandishing simulated handguns. The education code also prohibits students from taking any dangerous object to school.

Under a new weapons policy approved by the Los Angeles school board last Monday, students caught with fake guns--including stun guns--will be expelled from school for at least two semesters.

The letter that Irvine Unified mailed to all parents of students in fourth through 12th grade stressed that principals will recommend that the school board expel any student caught with a replica handgun.

Coincidentally, as a draft of the letter was being approved for mailing, Irvine had its first school-related shooting. On Nov. 19, two high school students allegedly opened fire at a group of other students outside a pizza parlor during lunch. Two students were wounded.

“In terms of ability to do harm, we’re obviously more concerned with real firearms,” Mills said. But the school district is worried that replica guns will lead to a rise in real ones.

Handguns at school, real or fake, create an aura of fear among students, Mills said. A student who believes his rivals are carrying guns will want to get one too, he said.

“And when push comes to shove, a real tragedy could occur,” Mills said.

Times education writer Sandy Banks contributed to this story.