High Schools May Ban Toy Guns and Knives

HUNTINGTON BEACH — Toy guns and knives, as well as the real things, would be banned from the campuses of high schools in Huntington Beach, Westminster and Fountain Valley under a revised policy being considered by the Huntington Beach Union High School District.

The school board, without debate, unanimously approved the first reading of the policy and scheduled it for second reading and final passage at the board’s Jan. 17 meeting.

The revised policy on “weapons and dangerous instruments” cites that state law already requires a school system “to immediately suspend and recommend for expulsion any student who brings a firearm to school.”

The school board, in its action Tuesday night, included toy guns and knives as grounds for suspension or expulsion. The proposed policy reads: “Students also may be suspended or expelled if they threaten others or disrupt school activities by exhibiting a replica of a weapon.”

The revised policy also says students may not possess “weapons, replicas of weapons or dangerous instruments of any kind in school buildings, on school grounds or buses or at any school-related or school-sponsored activity away from school.”

The revision would give “any school employee” the right to confiscate a real or toy weapon from a student.

The Huntington Beach Union High School District governs all public high schools in Huntington Beach, Westminster and Fountain Valley.