Editorials

A Berkeley High School student found with a gun last week on campus was arrested and has been expelled, said district officials, who added that the student’s actions were apparently inadvertent and it did not appear that the student intended to use the weapon. 

In an e-mail sent out to BHS faculty and staff last week, Vice Principal of Discipline and Safety Denise Brown said that a student was detained by school safety officers last Thursday after students reported seeing a gun in her backpack. 

Because she is a minor, the student has not been identified by school authorities or Berkeley law enforcement officials. 

“The student who was in possession of the gun was extremely upset because she had forgotten that she had the gun in her backpack,” Brown wrote. “She says, and her father confirmed with me, that he had given her the gun for safekeeping.” 

BUSD Public Information Officer Mark Coplan said it was his understanding that the student’s father had given her the weapon to “put away in a safe place where her younger siblings could not get access to it.” 

Coplan called the situation “a real tragedy. This girl was an ‘A’ student. She wasn’t a troublemaker. But the administration really didn’t have any choice in the matter. They had to expel her.” 

A spokesperson for the Berkeley Police Department said that law enforcement officials had not yet made a decision as to whether to bring criminal charges against the student.