Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : Early Warning : Schools: Unloaded gun found in a locker helps prompt rural Castaic district to buy a metal detector. Students now undergo random searches.

When an unloaded gun was found in a student locker at Castaic Middle School more than a year ago, parents in this small community were concerned.

A few days later, a 15-year-old Reseda High School student shot a 17-year-old point-blank in a hallway during midmorning break.

For many, the incidents illustrated big city violence creeping into outlying areas. The Castaic Union School District responded by purchasing a metal detector--becoming the first small, non-urban school district in California to do so.

Along with the $130 hand-held device came random weekly searches of students, their backpacks and lockers.

“Even though we thought our campus was safe, we wanted to do something more,” said Beverly Silsbee, principal of Castaic Middle School. “I don’t know that we did it to find anything. We did it as one more thing to make people feel safe.”

Despite initial concerns about privacy and class disruptions, district officials said the searches are now seen merely as an another effort to promote campus safety. There have been no parental complaints, Silsbee said.

Silsbee conducts the random searches with the assistance of dean Chuck Habert. They are conducted once a week at a different time, day and location, to check a cross-section of the campus’ 500 students.

“I think kids, for the most part, appreciate it can be done at any time and any place,” Silsbee said.

The checks have resulted in half a dozen suspensions. Some students were found carrying pocket knives. Others had large poster markers often used for graffiti. One student was suspended for having a large wad of money, more than $100, to buy items from other students, in violation of campus policy.

No guns have been found.

Each search takes about five minutes and includes use of the hand-held metal detector and a visual check of the student and possessions such as book bags. Silsbee and Habert usually enter a class and randomly choose every third, fourth or fifth pupil to be examined.

Students have the option to decline a search and contact their parents.

“We have found more interesting stuff in backpacks. “We’ve found week-old lunches. We’ve found toys,” Silsbee said. “More often it’s the boys that are on the disorganized side.”

District officials plan to continue the random searches and may purchase a second metal detector once enrollment expands.