Three juveniles charged, security heightened after gun-passing incident at Hempfield high school

Hempfield Area High School students on Tuesday were met by a robust police presence and handheld metal detectors — a response to guns being found at school a day earlier, and three 15-year-old students have been charged in connection with the incident.

Lines stretched across the gym and around the foyer of the auditorium as students waited their turn to have their bags individually searched by teachers and administrators with handheld metal detectors.

The increased security was a response to an incident Monday in which school officials and police caught three male students passing two loaded handguns — a .38-caliber and a .22-caliber — on a school bus and in a school bathroom, prompting a lockdown that lasted several hours.

The three students are being charged with felonies in juvenile court, according to the Westmoreland County District Attorney’s Office. All are charged with carrying a gun without a license, receiving stolen property, and causing or risking catastrophe, and several misdemeanors. One is charged with theft. Their identities were not released.

State police said it doesn’t appear that the students were planning any sort of attack. However one of the three students is alleged to have threatened another student during class but did not show a gun, which was concealed in the student’s backpack. That student has also been charged with making terroristic threats.

Police said both firearms were stolen, and the student who brought them into the school has been charged with a felony count of theft.

One of the three students had vaping device containing suspected THC, police said.

Superintendent Tammy Wolicki said Monday evening that students and their bags would be checked with metal detector wands on the way into school Tuesday in the wake of the incident. The district announced late Tuesday the process would be repeated Wednesday morning.

Students are only normally subject to metal detector wanding upon entering school if the district suspects something, she said, and the wands were not used Monday morning. The school plans to install permanent metal detectors as part of the stalled high school renovation project, Wolicki said, and the district will discuss installing temporary metal detectors at entrances in the interim.

Last school year, following an incident in early May, the district upped security and searched students’ bags with the wands for several consecutive days and then intermittently, Wolicki confirmed.

On Tuesday morning, the security process to get all 10th, 11th and 12th graders into the building took about an hour. Students stood still as administrators and teachers waved a security wand over them for a few seconds, then spent about one to two minutes searching each student’s bag, purse or lunch box with the wands.

The process took up much of first period, an activity period. Students were told to report to second period shortly afterward, about 8 a.m.

School police Chief Len Lander said he didn’t know how long the school plans to continue the increased security. The district has 10 handheld metal detectors, all of which were used Tuesday morning at the high school. Wolicki said the team doing the searches was trained on how to use the wands last year by school police officers.

“It’s kind of a two-pronged (approach),” Lander said. “It makes the kids feel safer, and it makes sure no weapons are being brought in.”

Safety or stress?

According to Lander, some students were scared during Monday’s lockdown, but “the teachers did a really good job of keeping the kids calm.”

“The kids were very supportive and helpful, so that was a huge plus for us,” he said. “… The kids that I saw and talked to felt like we had things under control.”

School resource officer Shannon Binda watched students come in Tuesday at the field house entrance. He said resource officers arrived at the school about 6:15 a.m. The district has 15 school resource officers in total.

“These kids are pretty cooperative,” he said, while waving students through the doors.

Student opinions on the situation were mixed. Some were nervous.

Christina Burke, a senior, said she “wished this stuff wasn’t happening.”

“I think people are so stupid — why would you bring guns to school?” she questioned.

“We shouldn’t have to do this in school. We should feel safe enough to come here and not have to deal with that,” she said. “… I don’t mind getting searched and all, but it’s the principle — we shouldn’t have to. It’s school — we should just come here to learn.”

“It’s just stressful,” senior Steven Rotonto said. He worried he wouldn’t be able to follow up on a planned assignment during the activity period because of the extended search process.

Junior Alexa Soles said Monday’s incident and the security response were “traumatizing.” She wished the school would get permanent metal detectors.

“I feel like this is nothing like what we should be having. This is very minor, and what we need is something major,” Soles said. “I think that a lot of kids aren’t going to be coming to school today, and a lot of kids might be going online after this, just because of how traumatizing yesterday was for a lot of people.”

Other students said the increased security helped them feel more safe.

“I feel pretty fine. It usually doesn’t happen that much, and now they are having extra precautions about it,” said Mallory Bitar, a sophomore. “It was just kind of scary thinking about what could have happened (Monday).”

Jack Humes, a junior, said he felt “pretty safe.” He added that on Monday, it seemed like the police got things organized.

“It’s real easy,” Humes said about the metal detector process. “You just walk past.”

Deondre Richards, a senior, said he felt more secure Tuesday than Monday.

“I feel like today, I definitely feel safe,” he said. “But yesterday was crazy.”