Central Junior High officials seize air gun from student's locker

A 13-year-old boy was caught bringing a realistic-looking pistol into a Cape Girardeau school Friday morning.

The Central Junior High School principal heard from a student that a seventhth-grade boy had shown off a gun while on a bus, police spokesman Jason Selzer said.

When the principal and a Cape Girardeau Police Department school resource officer searched the boy's locker, they found the weapon.

The gun, a Crosman Air Pistol, fires plastic BBs and resembles a .45-caliber Smith and Wesson handgun, according to Selzer.

"There would have been no way for someone to know it wasn't a lethal weapon unless they picked it up or touched it," he said.

The weapon was seized and the boy was cited into juvenile court for the incident.

The gun was never pointed at anybody and no one was injured.

"There was never a threat," Cape Girardeau School District superintendent Dave Scala said.

Officials briefly locked down the school after the weapon was found when they were searching for the gun's cartridge which holds the BBs, he said. The cartridge was found on another student.

This was the first time a realistic-looking gun was brought to Cape Girardeau schools since Scala has been superintendent, he said.

Even though the weapon was not a deadly firearm, school officials still treated it as such.

"You always act as though it's a real gun," Scala said.

Because the weapon looked like a firearm, Selzer said the school resource officer, who carries a sidearm, would have reacted as necessary if the weapon was brought out or pointed at someone.

"He would have treated it as a real-gun situation," Selzer said.

The boy could be facing suspension, and school authorities would be looking at policies to determine what punishment would be appropriate, according to Scala.

kmorrison@semissourian.com

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