Gun Found at School; 2 Arrested

Two teenage boys were arrested Tuesday after police said one of them took a handgun and about 14 rounds of ammunition to the Rancho Santa Margarita high school they attend.

One of the boys, 15, said he concealed the pistol in his backpack and brought it to Tesoro High School because he feared that other students meant to harm him, authorities said. “He brought it for self-protection,” said Lt. John Brimmage, a spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.

When word of the concealed weapon--a .380 semiautomatic--spread on campus and other students notified the principal, the boy passed the weapon to a friend, 16, who hid it in his own backpack, Brimmage said. Eventually, school authorities conducted a search, discovered the gun and called police.

The boys, whose names were not released because of their ages, were taken to Juvenile Hall in Orange and booked on suspicion of possessing a firearm on campus, a felony. “I would think there’s a strong likelihood that they’ll also be expelled,” Brimmage said.

School officials could not be reached for comment.

The 15-year-old’s fear apparently stemmed from a conversation he’d had with other teenagers several days earlier in which he’d made disparaging remarks about a popular student who had been injured in a car crash. “He made a derisive comment about the student ... and some of the kids took exception to it,” Brimmage said. “Apparently he’d been hassled.”