Guns In The Schools. What is to be done? : Yes, the Punishment Fits the Crime : Automatic-expulsion rule should be enforced against boy, 11, who took BB gun to school

The Los Angeles school board must send a strong message: If you take a gun to school you’re out. No second chances. Schools must be safe. No exceptions.

An 11-year-old Sylmar boy should become the youngest target of the district’s tough new expulsion policy. Last Friday the sixth-grader took a BB gun--a replica of a .45-caliber semiautomatic pistol--to school and aimed the gun at a female classmate, threatening to kill her and her family if she told anyone about the weapon. The frightened girl told a teacher, who got the gun and hid it. Only later was it found that the weapon wasn’t loaded and was broken.

Expelling the youngster is up to the principal, a district committee and the school board. Sympathy is understandable because of the boy’s age. The educators should value more, however, the youngsters who go to school to learn, not someone who would carry weapons, broken or otherwise. The boy should not be allowed to transfer to another district school; he should be expelled.

Tough expulsion policies work. In Prince Georges County, Md., near Washington, students are expelled if they take any weapon--a gun or replica, a knife, martial-art sticks--to school. That student code, one of the toughest in the nation, works because youngsters are willing to turn in their schoolmates.

In Los Angeles a new student hot line, 1-800-954-HELP, is prompting such calls. On Wednesday, a youngster reported a fellow student at a West Los Angeles junior high school. The 14-year-old did indeed have a gun, and was arrested. That success portends hope for the district.

Tougher state laws seeking to ensure that schools would be gun-free also would help. Legislation along this line suggested by Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren would parallel federal laws that mandate harsher penalties when drugs are sold near schools.

Tougher federal laws are needed too. Rep. George Miller (D-Martinez) has introduced a bill that would require schools to expel automatically any student who takes a weapon onto campus. The legislation also would require schools to design weapons-prevention programs. To fund new safety measures, such as the purchase of metal detectors and training for security guards, the bill creates a $100-million block grant program.

Expelling someone who is not yet in his teens seems harsh. But after the recent killings of two students at public schools, this punishment fits the crime.